Guitar Hero Mark Lettieri Readies Debut Mark Lettieri Group Live Album ‘Out By Midnight’

“If you like guitar music, come see us.”

That’s the simple selling point for the Mark Lettieri Group, spoken by the namesake guitarist while chatting about his upcoming live album Out By Midnight: Live At The Iridium.

While best known as a member of Snarky Puppy and The Fearless Flyers, Lettieri has an extensive solo career that has produced six albums to date, including the Grammy-nominated Deep: The Baritone Sessions Vol. 2. His distinctive style blends a variety of genres and influences from across the musical spectrum – he describes his solo work as “a rock band that has jazz chords.”

The Mark Lettieri Group came into being around 2012 as the Mark Lettieri Trio, an outlet for the guitarist to perform his solo material with a revolving rhythm section, primarily based around drummer Jason “JT” Thomas and bassist Wes Stephenson. Among the other musicians to play in the outfit have been Michael League, Robert “Sput” Searight, Mike Mitchell, and TaRon Lockett — all players of the highest caliber.

Instrumental music will always have its home overseas in Europe, and Lettieri took his trio over there as soon as he could, booking a 2016 tour with The Funky Knuckles. Opening for them each night, he was backed by the Knuckles rhythm section of drummer Cedric Moore and veteran Lettieri bass player Wes Stephenson.

After a few years of sporadic gigs during time off from Snarky Puppy touring, Lettieri seized an opportunity in 2017 to begin a weekly residency at Deep Ellum, Texas’ now-defunct Independent Bar and Kitchen. The birth of his daughter and the resulting break from touring away from home was the perfect opportunity to hone his solo material, and the guitarist was joined by longtime collaborators Stephenson and JT for the residency. “What I wanted to have done was record all those nights at the Independent,” Lettieri notes, “and there are some tapes floating around but nothing I’d want to put out officially.”

In 2019, Lettieri added keyboardist Daniel Porter to the mix, and the current Mark Lettieri Group lineup was born. With numerous tours throughout 2021 and 2022 in both Europe and North America, Lettieri decided it was finally time to record and release an official live album. Initially planned for a pair of shows at legendary jazz club New Morning in Paris this past July, a planned absence of Stephenson on the Lettieri Group summer tour threw the plans askew.

It was former GroundUP Music Director of Operations Jamie Margulies who suggested The Iridium in New York City – a perfect host for an intimate album recording session.

The 180-capacity room has been a legendary music venue for decades, featuring regular performances from Les Paul and other incredible musicians like Paul McCartney, Slash, Dickey Betts and more. A massive 2015 renovation upgraded the club’s built-in audio and video equipment, offering high-quality recordings for artists performing there.

Lettieri, Stephenson, Porter and JT set up shop in Midtown Manhattan on March 1st and 2nd, 2023 and laid down two excellent performances that will be immortalized on the forthcoming Out By Midnight: Live At The Iridium release, due out August 25th.

The 14-track album highlights songs from across the guitarist’s discography. “A lot of these tunes are ones that have morphed differently in the live arrangements,” says Lettieri about the song selection. He notes a big sonic difference with Porter’s inclusion too – “Having a keyboard sort of makes things different in the way the solos are done. There’s a lot of guitar soloing in my stuff, but I like to share the wealth now that I have a keyboard player in the band – some of the songs have a solo from Daniel on the live record instead of me.”

Stay tuned as JamBase will provide a track-by-track breakdown of the album, featuring insight and highlights from Lettieri himself on each song.