With a profession spanning over fifty years, one can be hard-pressed to discover a style of music that drummer Harvey Mason hasn’t touched.
This ten-time Grammy nominee has lent his expertise to a minimum of 1,100 recordings that run the gamut from music stylists like Gloria Lynne, Dianne Reeves, and Esther Phillips, pop artists together with Cher, Barbra Streisand, Jessy J, and Seal, to jazz-fusion artists like Herbie Hancock, Ramsey Lewis, Seawind, and Stanley Clarke.
“I am always trying to find the music in the drums,” he as soon as instructed Trendy Drummer. “I’m thinking musically and harmonically and melodically and not thinking as much rhythmically. I’m motivated and inspired by music, and that’s what inspires me to play.”
An Atlantic Metropolis native, Mason’s profession started as a young person enjoying in a wide range of golf equipment along with his band. His session profession started as a percussionist in New York Metropolis. After being employed by Quincy Jones for tv work, he moved to Los Angeles and was quickly doing three classes a day. He instructed music historian David Nathan, “Most times, we didn’t rehearse ahead of time – it was just a matter of going to the studios, studying the charts, then adding your own embellishments. It’s really a lot more spontaneous than people think.”
Regardless of his status as a session musician, Mason has additionally recorded eleven solo albums and over a dozen albums with Fourplay, the jazz supergroup he fashioned with Bob James, Lee Ritenour, and Nathan East. Nonetheless, we wished to pay tribute to Mason’s unbelievable studio profession. Listed here are 5 songs that present a sampling of his work.
Gene Harris – Higga-Increase
Harvey Mason composed and performed on this 1974 hit from Harris’ Blue Be aware album, Astral Sign. CashBox journal wrote that the only “just has to be a disco hit,” and praised its “very solid undercurrent of bass and drums.” The latter, in fact, was offered by Harvey Mason.
Minnie Riperton with Jose Feliciano – Mild My Fireplace
In an period of epic classes, this 1979 cowl of The Doorways’ signature music is one for the books: Hubert Legal guidelines, Jeremy Lubbock, Marlo Henderson, Abraham Laboriel, Randy Waldman, and Harvey Mason got here collectively on the music that might shut Minnie Riperton’s remaining studio album. Billboard praised the observe’s “superlative rhythm bed.”
Dr. John and Rickie Lee Jones – Makin’ Whoopee
In 1989, Harvey Mason contributed to a few tracks on Dr. John’s In a Sentimental Temper, together with this Grammy-winning collaboration with Rickie Lee Jones, a canopy of a traditional jazz composition. Mason instructed Jazz London Radio, “Jazz is highly creative. It frees the soul. When I play jazz, I think of nothing else; it’s relevant, it lights up my mind.”
Meshell Ndegeocello with Herbie Hancock – Nocturnal Sunshine
Recorded in 1994 for the Crimson Sizzling Group’s Stolen Moments: Crimson, Sizzling + Cool compilation meant to boost consciousness of the impression AIDS was having within the African American neighborhood, Meshell Ndegeocello joined with Harvey Mason, who locks down the groove, with Herbie Hancock, Wah Wah Watson, Luis Conte, and Scritti Politti’s David Gamson.
Vanessa Williams – What Will I Inform My Coronary heart
Williams’ cowl of this Dinah Washington traditional on her 1991 album The Consolation Zone introduced Harvey Mason collectively along with his long-time session mates Stanley Clarke, Pete Christlieb, and Randy Waldman. The Consolation Zone earned 5 Grammy nominations and was licensed triple platinum.
In search of extra? Take a look at our sequence of articles on the best classes musicians ever.
