Mark Egan

Mark Egan is an American jazz bassist and trumpeter known for his membership in the Pat Metheny Group and the Gil Evans Orchestra. He is co-founder of the jazz fusion band, Elements.
Mark McDanel Egan was born in Brockton, Massachusetts in 1951. Influenced by his father, he studied trumpet at age 10. He played the trumpet throughout high school, and began playing the bass when he was 15. While attending the University of Miami's Frost School of Music, initially as a trumpet student, he studied with jazz educator Jerry Coker. He switched from trumpet to bass part way through the program. While in Miami he also became friends and performed with Ira Sullivan, Pat Metheny, Danny Gottlieb, Clifford Carter. His teachers included Jaco Pastorius, Dave Holland, and Andy LaVerne.
In 1975, after graduate school, Egan went on tour with Eumir Deodato and the Pointer Sisters and recorded with David Sanborn. Two years later he worked as a studio musician in New York City, where he met Joe Beck and Steve Khan. He was part of the Pat Metheny Group until 1981, then with the Group's drummer, Danny Gottlieb, started the jazz fusion band Elements.