Background
Whitfield was born in Lindenhurst, New New York
Whitfield was born in Lindenhurst, New New York
Mark Whitfield graduated from Boston"s Berklee College of Music, the institute for the study of Jazz and modern American music, in the Spring of 1987 having studied composition and arranging as well as all styles of guitar performance.
He is probably better known for his recordings as bandleader for both the Verve and Warner Brothers Records record labels. He has worked with Jack McDuff, Jimmy Smith, Courtney Pine and Nicholas Payton, Chris Botti, among others
Along the way, the New York Times dubbed Whitfield "The Best Young Guitarist in the Business" and in September 1990 Warner Brothers released his solo debut, "The Marksman".
The success of this release has led to a recording career that has produced 14 solo projects to date and collaborative efforts with important artists in recent years: Sting, Doctorate"Angelo, Mary J. Blige, Chaka Khan, John Mayer, Jill Scott, Roy Hargrove, Diana Krall, Lauryn Hill, Sy Smith and Chris Botti. In September 2005, Mark Whitfield accepted the invitation to join the faculty at his alma mater, teaming up with Joe Lovano, Ralph Peterson, Danilo Perez and Terri Lyne Carrington as "Artists in Residence" at the Berklee School.
In 2000, Whitfield released an instructional guitar video titled Mark Whitfield: Star Licks Master Sessions, for Star Licks Productions. On December 21, 2012 Mark played live with the Dave Matthews Band on two of their songs, "Mercy" and "Crash Into Maine", at a concert at the Barclay"s Center in Brooklyn, New New York
He recently also reprised his accompaniment on two occasions during the 2013 summer tour again with "Mercy" (June 8, 2013.
Hartford,Connecticut) and with "If Only" and "Crash Into Maine" (July 13, 2013. Hershey, Pennsylvania).