Mark de Clive-Lowe is a pianist, composer, producer, and interdisciplinary artist whose work moves fluidly between jazz improvisation, electronic production and long-form conceptual storytelling. Well-known for performances that unfold in real time, juggling piano, synthesizers, live sampling and beat construction, his practice treats technology not as accompaniment but as an active collaborator in the creative process.

Born in New Zealand to a Japanese mother and New Zealand father, Mark’s musical language was shaped early by jazz records at home and later by the sample-based worlds of hip-hop, drum’n’bass, and electronic music. These parallel lineages - acoustic tradition and beat culture - have remained in dialogue throughout a career spanning more than 25 years.

A formative decade in London placed him at the center of the city’s underground music community, where he became a key figure in the emergence of broken beat and a new, improvisation-led approach to electronic music. Releases such as Six Degrees and Tide’s Arising established a sound that bridged jazz harmony with club dynamics, prompting Jazziz to later observe:

“Way before jazz hybridity became a worldwide phenomenon, de Clive-Lowe was busy designing its blueprint.”

After relocating to Los Angeles in 2008, Mark’s work expanded beyond the club into broader artistic and cultural contexts. His long-running CHURCH project—described by him as “equal parts jazz club, dance floor, and live remix experiment” - became a platform for intergenerational collaboration, community-building, and live reinvention, while his compositional focus deepened toward ancestry, memory and identity.

Projects such as Heritage, Motherland (a 40-minute audio-visual film) and experimental short films Tiger and Dragon mark a shift toward immersive, concept-driven work that integrates music, image, place and history. His recent album Past Present (Tone Poems Across Time) moves further into this terrain: a meditative, ostensibly rhythm-free body of work built from analog synthesizers and field recordings, exploring grief, reconciliation and posthumous healing.

Across contexts - whether remixing Blue Note recordings live, performing solo piano, creating ambient sound environments, or collaborating with artists such as Kamasi Washington, Harvey Mason, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, DJ Spinna and Daito Manabe - Mark de Clive-Lowe’s work is unified by a single through-line: an ongoing exploration of how music, technology and art can express culture, reflect society and reframe our understanding of past and present.

He has released over twenty albums, contributed to more than 300 recordings, and performed worldwide at venues including the Lincoln Center, Smithsonian, SFJAZZ, and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Equally at home in concert halls, museums, and underground spaces, his practice continues to evolve - less concerned with genre than with creating experiences that invite deep listening, connection, and reflection over time.

“de Clive-Lowe’s notion of truth on Heritage ultimately reaches beyond the individual, beyond his lineage and into the cultural moment we’re currently living”. - Downbeat

"(the) avant-garde soulful Pianist/DJ/Producer delivers his lifetime of journeys to different musical ports in a concise package, seamlessly... transporting not just in genre but in emotion and spirit." - Huffington Post

"a musical force unlike any other" - Popmatters.com 

 

SELECTED PERFORMANCE HIGHLIGHTS

  • NYC Winter Jazz Festival, New York (2024)

  • Grand Performances, Los Angeles: Jazz in the House (2023)

  • Mark de Clive-Lowe x Daito Manabe, Tokyo Japan (2023)

  • Kravis Center, Florida: Motherland feat Eric Harland (2023)

  • SF Jazz, San Francisco: with Zakir Hussain + Eric Harland (2021)

  • Lincoln Center, New York: Motherland (2021)

  • La Ceiba Festival with Initiatives of Change USA: Virtual Festival (2020)

  • Smithsonian, Washington DC: Smithsonian Year of Music Feature Artist (2019)

  • SF Jazz, San Francisco: Heritage (2019)

  • Aratani Theater, Los Angeles: Heritage (2019)

  • YBCA Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco: Transform Festival (2018)

  • Grand Performances, Los Angeles: Mirai no Rekishi (2017)

  • Angel City Jazz Festival: Ford Theater, Los Angeles CA (2017)

  • Grand Performances, Los Angeles: Classical Remixed (2015)

  • Hollywood Bowl with Harvey Mason, Los Angeles CA (2015)

  • Millennium Stage, Chicago IL (2016)

  • LACMA, Los Angeles CA (2015)

  • Walt Disney Hall with Harvey Mason, Los Angeles CA (2015)

  • Noise Pop Festival, San Francisco CA (2013)

  • Lincoln Center Atrium, New York NY (2013)

  • SF Jazz, San Francisco CA (2013)

  • Harlem Stage with Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, Harlem NY (2012)

  • North Sea Jazz Festival, Rotterdam Netherlands (2012)

  • Tokyo Crossover Jazz Festival, Tokyo Japan (2006)

  • Montreal Jazz Festival, Montreal Canada (2006)

SELECTED EDUCATOR HIGHLIGHTS

  • Berklee College of Music: Clinician (2020, 2018)

  • IMEP Paris, France: Creative Workflow Masterclass (2017)

  • Creative Workflow Masterclass Workshops: San Jose, Costa Rica; Cologne, Germany;

    Auckland, New Zealand (2012-2019)

  • Native Instruments Masterclass Workshops: Luanda, Angola (2014)

  • Ableton Live Masterclass Workshop: Berlin, Germany (2016)

  • Remixing Blue Note Records Masterclass: Los Angeles, CA; St Louis, MO (2014)

AWARDS/NOTABLES

  • Creative NZ Arts Council of NZ Creative Fellowship (2024)

  • Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts Residency (2024)

  • Montalvo Arts Lucas Artist Program Fellow (2023-2026)

  • 2022 Connect Summit - keynote speaker, Berklee College of Music (2022)

  • U.S.-Japan Creative Artists Program Fellowship - JUSC/NEA (2021)

  • La Ceiba Festival - Initiatives of Change USA: Founding Artist in Residence (2020)

  • YBCA 100 - Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (2016)

  • RoundGlass Music Awards: nominated for best jazz composition (2017)

  • World Public Forum – Dialogue of Civilizations: guest speaker (Greece, 2014)

SELECTED ALBUM DISCOGRAPHY

  • past present (tone poems across time) (Impressive Collective/BBE Music) 2025

  • DRAGON Original Soundtrack (Mashibeats) 2024

  • DREAMWEAVERS (Mother Tongue) 2020

  • CHURCH Sessions (World Galaxy/Alpha Pup) 2019

  • Heritage II (Ropeadope) 2019

  • Heritage (Ropeadope) 2019

  • Ronin Arkestra - Sonkei (Albert’s Favourites) 2019

  • Live at the Blue Whale (Mashibeats/Ropeadope) 2017

  • Blue Note Remixed vol.1 (Mashibeats) 2016

  • CHURCH Remixed (Mashibeats/Ropeadope) 2015

  • CHURCH (Mashibeats/Ropeadope) 2014

  • Take the Space Trane (Tru Thoughts) 2013

  • Renegades (Tru Thoughts) 2011

  • Leaving this Planet (Mashibeats) 2011

  • Journey 2 the Light (Freedom School) 2007

  • THe Politik (Milan) 2007

  • Freesoul Sessions (Antipodean) 2007

  • Tide’s Arising (Columbia/ABB Soul) 2005

  • Melodious Beats (Antipodean) 2003

  • Six Degrees (Universal Jazz) 2000

  • Vision (Tap Records) 1997

  • First Thoughts (Tap Records) 1996