The upcoming 2026 release of New Stages on Dot Time Records isn’t just a new album—it’s a defining moment in Mark Wade’s creative evolution, where years of innovation collide with a clear-eyed vision of what comes next. A five-time finalist for Bassist of the Year in the DownBeat Magazine Readers’ Poll, Wade has earned his place among modern jazz’s most distinctive and dynamic voices. On New Stages, he takes a bold step forward, reimagining the architecture of classical compositions through the intimate force of a modern jazz trio—an expansive, deeply collaborative exploration of sound, structure, and possibility. I caught up with Mark to talk about the project, the risks behind it, and the new ground he’s determined to claim.
Hi Mark, it’s good to catch up with you, ahead of your busy period of live performances. “New Stages” feels like a title with intent. What exactly is changing for you on this record—your writing voice, your identity as a bandleader, or your idea of what the bass can lead?
I’ve always felt that the bass can be an equal voice among an ensemble, particularly a smaller ensemble like the piano trio I feature on this record. As a bandleader, my philosophy has always been that I wanted to feature programs that were heavy on original music that I compose. I’m always looking for new landscapes for the band to play over that challenge us to do something a little bit different. What is changing with this record is that I’ve drawn on my experiences as a classical musician to look for inspiration from some of the great classical works I’ve had the great fortune of playing over the years. Some of these works have left a profound impact on me as a listener. I always knew I wanted to do something with these themes that would involve my jazz trio and finally, I’ve been ready to present this project. I’ve taken some of these classical themes and combined them with my own writing style to create something that is both a nod to the original and a unique work that stands on its own. It’s a project I’ve been working on for the last eight years, in between writing music for other albums that I had put out in the meantime. Finally, I felt the time was right to move forward with this project.
You’ve said you spent eight years collecting themes from classical works. What made a theme “treasured” enough to keep—and what made you finally say, now is the moment to turn this into an album?
For me, the music that I have selected as inspiration for this project were particular pieces that moved me in a profound way as a listener. There’s no rhyme or reason as to why, just the personal, emotional connection anyone might have with a particular piece of music that they really connect with. I wrote the first piece for this project just after finishing my first record, which I released back in 2015. Even then, I began to think about creating an entire program of music drawn from classical works, but I felt before I pursued that in earnest, I wanted to establish myself as someone known for writing original music that wasn’t connected to any other source. I released two more albums with my trio out after that, which featured my original compositions, but all the while I was still working on the music for this set of “classically inspired “music. Finally, it felt like the time was right to put this particular set of music out there
When you’re drawing from masterworks “from baroque to modern day,” how do you avoid the music becoming a collage of references and instead make it feel like one coherent emotional narrative?
The goal of this project from the beginning was to take various themes and ideas from these great classical masterworks and infuse it with my own individual writing style to create a set of music that would sound like it belonged in a set of my own original music. I’ve spent these last eight years being very intentional about what music I selected and how that would work as I incorporated my own musical thoughts and ideas with it. I’ve also tried to keep a big picture of you as to how each individual composition worked as they related to all the other pieces in the project. Do all of these pieces work as a coherent set of music in and of themselves? The process was not as simple as just taking the original and adding a groove to it. It was really about distilling the original down to its essential musical essence and then thinking about how I could take that result and come up with something new with an identity separate from the original.
You describe this project as finding the essence of great works and combining it with your unique style. What does “essence” mean in practice—melody, harmony, rhythm, orchestration, emotional tension—and what do you refuse to take from the source material?
Any of these things could be what I would consider the essence of that source material. Nothing is off the table as far as inspiration. Sometimes it was a specific harmony that started the creative process for me. Other times the emotional tension. It could be a few of the items you listed, one of the items, or several. It varied from piece to piece. I refused to take any element that would not be workable within my own sense of writing and arranging. It wasn’t enough that I enjoyed a particular motif or harmonic movement. It also had to pass the test of being something workable within this peculiar musical style that I was trying to create for this project.
There’s a philosophical question at the heart of the album: Is it jazz? Is it classical? Do you genuinely want listeners to decide—or do you think the need to label it says something limiting about how we listen?
If one had to put a label on this, it would be more jazz than anything else, but that does not necessarily tell the whole story. We are a jazz piano trio after all, so it’s unsurprising that the music would lean in that direction. That being said, I can safely say that some of this music doesn’t easily fall within a traditional view of modern acoustic jazz today. It really is up to everyone to decide what they feel about music, and not just mine. I am a firm believer that people need to make up their own minds as to how they feel about any particular piece of music. I don’t like people telling me what to think or feel about music, and it’s not fair to ask that of anyone else. Labels are convenient tools for the music industry to market music, but not necessarily the best way to understand music.
Turning point implies risk. What was the biggest compositional or artistic risk you took on New Stages that you wouldn’t have taken on Event Horizon or True Stories?
Trying to take someone else’s ideas and create something new from them was definitely a risk for me. It’s potentially risky in the sense that the music had to still sound like I was speaking with my voice and not someone else’s. I found this project to be a great challenge as a composer and an arranger. It took a lot of careful consideration with very small details right up into the largest big picture view of each individual piece, and the set of music as a whole.
You’re known for blending technical precision with emotional depth. On this album, where did you have to choose one over the other—where did you intentionally simplify to make the emotional message land?
I wouldn’t say it was a question of simplifying anything. I’m always concerned with making sure that the music has an emotional impact and is not in any way an intellectual exercise. I think it is a difficult job of being both objective and subjective about the music that you’re writing, but that’s what it takes in my opinion. One can’t get lost in the emotion and forgo the technical details of making music. At the same time, the technique has to serve the emotional content to the music and never become the focus. For me, the trial and error of practicing my craft as a player, composer, and bandleader have all come in to play here.
Let’s talk about the trio as a creative engine: when you bring in material rooted in orchestral sound-worlds, what specific choices did you make in arrangement and interplay to make it feel inevitable on three instruments rather than “reduced”?
Certainly, there are a lot of challenges in taking a work that was originally written for orchestra and solo violin and trying to present something that grows from that with a jazz piano trio. I think the process starts with a strong understanding of the original material, and a strong understanding of what a jazz piano trio can and can’t do well, with an additional nod to what my trio’s specific strengths are. This is where I felt it was very important for me to be very intentional with my choices of what elements of these works I started with as the basis for these compositions of mine. I think there was a fine line to walk between sounding cliché or a bit forced and coming up with something that felt natural and organic as a musical presentation. I think having a number of albums under my belt at this point in my career gave me more confidence and craft as a composer to know what elements to embrace and which to discard.
As you share New Stages and perform album tracks as part of your upcoming gigs, what do you hope audiences understand about where you’re heading next as an artist—not just what you’ve already accomplished
I hope it comes across is that this music is just a natural progression of me as a bass player, composer, and arranger. I always intended this project to be able to be played alongside my other music and have it sound like it was a good match. I’m always looking for new landscapes for the band to play over while still retaining the identity of the group. I’m excited about the landscapes we’ve created here, and I hope others will share that excitement.
Please share a little more about your upcoming gigs and where you’ll be performing
I have a number of concerts coming up, both overseas and here in New York City, to support the release of the album. The album will be released on Dot Time Records on March 27. I start with a tour in Switzerland and the UK, starting on March 19. I will have three shows in Switzerland, starting with a show on March 19 in Zürich, and then I travel to the UK for a week of concerts starting on March 22. I have a number of great concerts lined up there, including a return to Pizza Express Dean Street in London on March 25. I come back to New York for a concert on April 9 at Shanghai Jazz in Madison, New Jersey, and then a concert in New York City at Culture Lab on April 17. For more information, listeners can head to my website markwademusicny.com or follow me on social media facebook.com/mark.wade.319 and IG @markwadebass for more concert details.
Mark Wade Photos by Bill Heuberger, courtesy of the artist
About Author
