Mark Orton

Mark Orton serves as guitarist for the chamber jazz ensemble Tin Hat Trio while maintaining a parallel career as a recording and sound engineer whose credits include sessions alongside Bill Frisell, John Zorn, and the Lounge Lizards plus several years of engineering work at the Knitting Factory. With his other ensemble, San Fransisco’s Old Joe Clarks, he performs on banjo, lute, Dobro, lap steel, and electric guitar and has also written scores for independent films such as Beverly Wachtel’s Just Noticeable Difference. During the late ’90s he joined accordionist Rob Burger and violinist Carla Kihlstedt to establish Tin Hat Trio. The group’s sound fuses composed structure with improvisation and contemporary classical elements while incorporating folk, world, and jazz influences. Its first release, Memory Is an Elephant, appeared on Angel Records in early 1992, and Helium arrived in spring 2000.