Mark Stewart



Cello on “Ferris Wheel”. Multi-instrumentalist, singer, composer and instrument designer Mark Stewart has been heard around the world performing old and new music. Mark spent much of 1999, 2000 and 2001 recording, touring & performing with Paul Simon and the previous summer performing at Lincoln Center in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night with Helen Hunt, Kira Sedgwick, and Paul Rudd.

He has also worked with Anthony Braxton, Bob Dylan, Cecil Taylor, Meredith Monk, Edie Brickell, Don Byron, Paul McCartney & Marc Ribot. His New York Lower East Side "lab" is home to an instrument workshop and sonic salon where traditional and new instruments cohabitate. He has played for the Broadway shows Showboat, The Who's Tommy, The Sound of Music, Carousel, and The Lion King.

ER: We met Mark when he first moved to NYC. He joined us on guitar for my niece Lindsay Rose’s elementary school. The band included my brother Bob Rose, his wife Linda LoPresti and some other high class session players who volunteered to play. Mark was very upbeat and oh, so talented. Nice guy, too. We lost track for several years after that. Then I began to see him on TV playing with Paul Simon on....cello...?
I knew him as a guitar player. I wanted cello on the song because it
was my Dad’s instrument and ... well it was just right. I called Mark
and warned him that this song changes meter practically every bar.
“I can count,” he said. He arrived and played the whole thing down -
both parts - with exquisite finesse.

A few weeks later Donnie and I got to see Mark in his element:
Polygraph Lounge at Joe’s Pub. This is Spike Jones au courant. The
house was packed with fans. Killer musicians with grand chops, these
guys had us laughing at musical schtick including a song that lets you
sing along with a car alarm. Don’t miss Polygraph Lounge. These guys
are ridiculous.

www.polygraphlounge.com



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