Early Career
Influenced by his father, Egan first studied trumpet at age 10. He played the trumpet throughout high school, and switched to the bass when he was 15. While attending the University of Miami's Frost School of Music, he studied with jazz educator Jerry Coker. While in Miami he also became friends and performed with Ira Sullivan, Pat Metheny, Danny Gottlieb, Clifford Carter and many other inspirational players. Within that same group was the now-famous fretless bass guitarist, Jaco Pastorius, who Egan lists specifically as a revolutionary performer and influence. Since Pastorius and Egan both lived in Florida in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Egan got to know him and even studied Pastorius' approach to the bass, going so far as to take formal courses with him.
Read more about this topic: Mark Egan
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