Mark Zaleski Quintet

Mark Zaleski is one of the most distinctive and versatile voices on the New England jazz scene — a Boston-based saxophonist, multi-instrumentalist, composer, and bandleader whose music refuses to be neatly categorized. Growing up in Boylston, Massachusetts, he was shaped equally by the jazz of Dave Brubeck, Cannonball Adderley, and Oscar Peterson, and the rock and soul of Led Zeppelin, The Temptations, and Stevie Wonder — and those influences have never left him.

Zaleski became the first alto saxophonist selected to the prestigious Dave Brubeck Institute Fellowship Program in 2003, where he shared the stage with Brubeck himself at the Library of Congress and the Monterey Jazz Festival. Brubeck consistently encouraged him to "find his own voice" — and he has done exactly that. He went on to study with legendary educators Charlie Banacos and Jerry Bergonzi at the New England Conservatory of Music, and has since performed with Dave Brubeck, Christian McBride, Ian Anderson, Lake Street Dive, Louis Cole, the Grammy-winning 8-Bit Big Band, and Rakalam Bob Moses, among many others. He has been a featured soloist with the Cambridge Symphony Orchestra and the Chrysalis Rock Orchestra, and is currently on faculty at both Berklee College of Music and the New England Conservatory.

His most recent album, Our Time: Reimagining Dave Brubeck (Origin Records), presents strikingly fresh arrangements of Brubeck's classic compositions with an edgy, modern flair — earning widespread critical praise and cementing Zaleski's reputation as a bandleader of real imagination and depth. His brother, acclaimed pianist Glenn Zaleski, is a frequent collaborator and a familiar face to Side Door audiences.

The Side Door Jazz Club is a dedicated jazz listening room located inside the historic Old Lyme Inn, 85 Lyme Street, Old Lyme, CT. Tickets are reserved seating. Guests dining at the Old Lyme Inn prior to the show receive 10% off their dinner bill.