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Mark Guest recently moved to the Mississippi Gulf Coast with his wife DeNeice, whose career in remote sensing led her to the Stennis Space Center. "I was dubious about the move," he said, "but while house-hunting we met some of the arts community at a Second Saturday Art Walk in Bay St. Louis and we decided that we could do it. The proximity to New Orleans also made the move easier."

Since arriving on the coast, Mark has been actively promoting jazz in the area, hosting Friday Night Jazz at Bay City Grill in Bay St. Louis from January, 2002 until early 2003. "Friday Night Jazz at Bay City Grill was a great gig. I got to draw from a variety of local and regional jazz players. Changing the lineup kept the chemistry fresh for the musicians as well as the patrons." Guest commented. In addition to restaurant and club dates, the guitarist plays private parties and special events in the region. A new CD is in the works. Guest led a quartet at the last two Jazz in the Pass festivals in Pass Christian, and hopes to participate in more festivals next year.

The Canadian-born Guest was raised on Toronto Island at a time when the Toronto jazz scene was very hot. "The Island has been a hothouse for artists of all sorts for several decades," Guest remembers. "My wife calls it 'Disneyland for hippies and artists', and I have to agree." Although Toronto Island is a small community of around a thousand people, it is only 15 minutes from downtown Toronto via ferryboat. "During the early 1970's I became a teenaged 'jazz snob' and regularly hung out listening to jazz players like Lenny Breau, Sonny Greenwich, Don Thompson and Terry Clark. Those were just the local guys. One of the clubs was good about booking the big names in jazz. I got to enjoy a lot of great players there. Guys like George Benson, McCoy Tyner, Brother Jack MacDuff, and Rashaan Roland Kirk."

"Playing guitar took up quite a bit of my social life. I was usually woodshedding (practicing), or off somewhere playing music with others. I did some rock and blues gigs back then, but most of the guys that I played with had their hearts in jazz. I also was exposed to the avant-garde/free jazz scene that was happening at the time. It was a real privilege to play with guys like Al Greg, who was pretty far out there in the free jazz world, and Kieran Overs, who is now a very hot bassist on the Toronto jazz scene."

Although he says that music school and guitar teachers are important, Mark admits to being a poor guitar student in his youth. "I was an eager teenager then, and going back to the basics just didn't seem very important at the time. Learning to do things the right way would have saved me years of excruciatingly slow progress in my playing. There are young players coming out of the music schools now who have monster chops, but little soul in their music. I wonder if maybe the slower development allowed me to work more with the heart of the music instead of obsessing about how many different scales I can run over the changes." Shortly after arriving in the area, Guest hooked up with the dean of New Orleans guitar teachers, Hank Mackie for a year of private lessons. "Hank is a great teacher and player," Guest said. "He has a reputation of having more students than God. While I drove two hours round trip for the lessons, the guy that has the slot before me makes a five-hour round trip. And he has been seeing Hank for over ten years."

Mark has expressed interest in fostering additional regional jazz venues. "Live jazz is definitely enjoying a bit of a renaissance on the Coast. It makes sense, as the Coast is where people from New Orleans come to play. There are so many great jazz players living in the region." He concludes, "There's no reason that we should have to leave the area to enjoy good jazz."

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