“Mark Winkler is a musical marvel and a true original! At last, in the jazzy tradition of Bobby Troup, Hoagy Carmichael, Matt Dennis and Dave Frishberg, a writer who sings and a singer who swings!” —Rex Reed
Mark Winkler is a platinum award winning singer/lyricist who has had over 250 of his songs recorded and/or sung by such artists as Dianne Reeves, Jane Monheit, Liza Minnelli, Bob Dorough, Steve Tyrell, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Lea Di Lauria and Britain’s Claire Martin. He also has charted high on the Jazz Week charts with his last 4 vocal releases, as well as being named a 2017 ”Rising Star” Male Jazz Vocalist in Downbeat Magazine.
He released his new CD “The Company I Keep” in June of 2017. His last recording “Jazz And Other Four Letter Words” got him a Four Star Downbeat Review, A five star All About Jazz Review and was named the best Jazz vocal CD of 2015 in Jazziz Magazine who did an article on him. This CD once again finds Mark mixing his own originals with songs by the likes of Prince, Donald Fagen and The Gershwins. This time he is joined by 22 stellar musicians including Cheryl Bentyne, Steve Tyrell, Sara Gazarek, David Benoit, John Clayton, Claire Martin, Jeff Hamilton and John Beasley.
Last year, four of his lyrics were featured on the new David Benoit/Jane Monheit CD “2 In Love” which just received a four star rating from All Music Guide. This comes on the heels of more and more of his songs being recorded by the best singers in Jazz.
He has played in clubs in Los Angeles, in New York at the Blue Note and Birdland and has sung in London, Tokyo and Australia. As part of “West Coast Cool” with Cheryl Bentyne he has performed at the Syracuse Jazz Festival and in Tuscon, Arizona, Toronto, Canada and Madison, Wisconsin among many other cities.
As an educator he’s in his 11th year teaching lyric writing “Crafting Great Lyrics: A Songwriters Workshop” at UCLA extension and at the Los Angeles School of Songwriting. He writes columns for Music Connection magazine and does interviews and reviews for LA Jazz Scene.