CW Mark Harris II
Mark Harris II is a prodigious keyboardist, multi-instrumentalist, arranger, and composer.
Born in Los Angeles, California and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, he has always been surrounded by music. Harris credits his early influences to his father, a jazz enthusiast,along with his church family. As Harris began to perfect his craft, he developed a lovefor melodies. His sound applies diverse productions along with eclectic grooves. Eachtune is an assortment of fusion, contemporary jazz, and R&B intonations.
Since emerging onto the smooth Jazz scene in 2013, he has released three singles: Traveler (2020) and Pocket Change (2021) and his new release 6IX (The Odyssey (2023).
As well as two notable albums, Imagine (2015) and Interstellar (2018). Harris’ artistry has yielded opportune exposure and capability. In 2018 he obtained great knowledge and inspiration while touring with artists abroad in Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, American Samoa, Hong Kong, and Canada.
Harris has also served as the Music Director for acclaimed National Recording Artists such as Tweet, Glenn Jones, Carl Thomas, KeKe Wyatt, NandoSTL, Dave Hollister, and Chrisette Michele.
He is honored to have been an opening artist for Grammy Award winner Gregory Porter at the Music At The Intersection Festival held at the Fox Theatre in St. Louis, MO (2021). In 2021, he completed his artist in residence with the Kranzberg Arts Foundation. Within that platform, he gave back to his community and bestowed monthly live and online streaming concerts.
Among his other honors, he won the A-List awards St. Louis (2022) for Best Original Band and “Best St. Louis” Musician. 2023 awarded him the honor of writing the song Luna, a track off Najee's latest album, Savoir Faire, that also features Harris. His impressive talents and collaboration led to Najee officially inviting him to join his band.
But he is no stranger to working with such extraordinary artists, throughout his artistic career, Harris is grateful to have shared the stage with Adam Hawley, Phil Denny, Mali Music, Jubu Smith, Julian Vaughn, Marion Meadows, Pieces of a Dream, and Norman Brown.
As his recording catalog persistently grows, he will continue to shape the future of jazz for the generations to come and ensure the genre never becomes stagnant.
