Harvey Mason
Biographie Harvey Mason
Harvey Mason
is among the most recorded and in-demand drummers of all-time. A legendary, multi-GRAMMY® nominated session drummer, producer, composer & recording artist, he has worked with a pantheon of musical giants, including Barbra Streisand, James Brown, Herbie Hancock, Beyonce, Christina Aguilera, Usher, Jennifer Hudson, Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles, Bjork, Carlos Santana, Michael Jackson, John Legend, Seal, and the London Symphony Orchestra. He has composed and written songs recorded by artists ranging from Nancy Wilson and Mary J. Blige to The Notorious B.I.G., Lupe Fiasco, Nelly/P. Diddy and T.I. Rhythm Master only begins to define Mason’s prodigious gifts once composer, arranger and educator are factored into the mix. The breadth of his creativity as an artist with albums as a leader showcasing his skills in pre and post production has also been internationally acclaimed. He even co-wrote a choral campaign anthem in 2008 for Presidential nominee Barack Obama, “A Change We Can Believe In (Yes We Can)” and produced its music video. The multiply Grammy-nominated man known as “The Mase” has proven himself invaluable from jazz combos to recording studios to motion picture sound stages to symphony orchestras, sharing his gifts at the service of an enviable resume of immortals. Let us pause a moment to peruse and show them respect:
Henry Mancini, Miles Davis, Ray Charles, Michael Jackson, Frank Sinatra, Bobby Hutcherson, Carmen McRae, James Brown, Freddie Hubbard, Stanley Turrentine, Donald Byrd, Isaac Hayes, Maurice White, Charles Stepney, Toots Thielemans, Claus Ogerman, Victor Feldman, Ralph MacDonald, Gil Scott-Heron, Shirley Horn, Peggy Lee, Esther Phillips, Jimmy Smith, Joe Pass, Chet Atkins, Erroll Garner, George Shearing, Bobby Womack, Jon Lucien, Karen Carpenter, Louis Johnson, Joe Henderson. Michael Brecker, Joe Farrell, Minnie Riperton, Natalie Cole, Donna Summer, Phyllis Hyman, Phoebe Snow, Gerry Mulligan, Maynard Ferguson, Chet Baker, Eddie Kendricks, Frank Wilson, Gene Harris, Charles Earland, Johnny Hammond, Gabor Szabo, Coke Escovedo, Syreeta, Vesta, Gavin Christopher…and The Notorious B.I.G.
A Living Legend, Harvey Mason remains as vital and versatile as ever, racking up even more credits with today’s artists ranging from Beyoncé, Björk, Seal, Usher, John Legend, Christina Aguilera and Jennifer Hudson to James Taylor, Barbra Streisand, Carlos Santana, Luis Miguel, Diana Ross, Sergio Mendes, Vanessa Williams, Stanley Clarke, Dee Dee Bridgewater and Reba McIntyre.
Harvey is also a founding member of the all-star contemporary jazz “super group,” Fourplay, in which he flexes his writing, playing, arranging and production skills with his partners, keyboardist Bob James, bassist Nathan East and guitarist Chuck Loeb. The band celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2015 with its thirteenth album, Silver (on Heads Up/Concord Records, featuring guest appearances by both former guitarists Lee Ritenour and Larry Carlton). The group continues to perform around the world which has been highly inspirational for Mason since he passed on a wealth of travel earlier in his career to remain in L.A. and become Drum King of the West Coast Studios. However, Harvey’s humble beginnings were in the east.
Born in Atlantic City, New Jersey on February 22, 1947, Harvey William Mason was the oldest of eight children in a family surviving on welfare. His first musical instrument was flutophone followed by drums. He started formal orchestral drumming lessons at seven with Joseph Jacobs (violinist with the Philadelphia Orchestra) but only played in school as his family could not afford to buy him a set. During that period, Harvey primarily played on a practice pad and voraciously focused on sight reading music. In eighth grade, he joined the school dance band. At Atlantic City High School (which had an exceptional music theory program) Harvey began studying piano, playing it in church and even entered a talent show leading a jazz trio. At 14, he finally got his first drum kit: a 3-piece Gretsch.
Initially, Harvey was indulging in music purely for fun and side money, intending to become a lawyer to escape poverty. Then he read an interview in Downbeat Magazine with prolific Los Angeles session percussionist Larry Bunker that revealed the professional side of being a musician. A light went on in Harvey’s head. Getting deep into jazz giants such as Art Taylor, Buddy Rich and Louis Bellson, Harvey joined the American Legion Drum Corps followed by the more exacting Seahorse Lancers Drum & Bugle Corps in Brigantine, New Jersey). As a minor, he also juggled two important training ground gigs: an organ trio at The Wonder Garden (for which he obtained a special license to work there underage) and moonlighting at The Jockey Club strip joint (deeeep undercover).
After graduating high school, Harvey worked an additional year gigging with New Orleans pianist James Booker to save money to attend the Berklee College of Music in Boston for a year and a half (including lessons under jazz immortal Alan Dawson and Fred Buda of the Boston Pops). He then transferred to the New England Conservatory of Music on a full scholarship studying performance, composing and arranging. Harvey was mentored by conducting great Gunther Schuller, and received immeasurable preparation on mallets and timpani for orchestral work from the legendary Vic Firth (timpanist with the Boston Symphony). He also clocked in overtime at Boston’s Triple A Studios recording everything from jingles to religious albums – unpredictable and diversified situations that custom molded him for the career of a top-flight session musician.
After graduating from NEC in 1970 with a B.A. in Education and Performance, Harvey toured internationally with piano legend Errol Garner then switched to George Shearing to position himself in Los Angeles. The majority of his calls for the first three years were for percussion/mallets, acclimating himself with local veterans Emil Richards, Victor Feldman and…Larry Bunker. After producer Jerry Peters called him to Memphis for sessions with “The Iceman” Jerry Butler and especially new family sextet The Sylvers (ear-tickling marimba on the eerie “Fool’s Paradise” and – for youngest brother Foster Sylvers – “Misdemeanor”), things began percolating. Then one night on a gig at famed Concerts by the Sea on the Redondo Beach Pier where Harvey was playing vibes with baritone sax giant Gerry Mulligan, hot shot L.A. drummer John Guerin is a no-show. Harvey slides up to the drum set and all the cats take notice, including Dave Grusin who started hiring him for all his movie scores.
Harvey’s funk-footed work on jazz trumpet giant Donald Byrd’s Mizel Brothers- produced commercial breakthrough Black Byrd in 1972, followed by a series of “crossover” albums for Blue Note Records, led to Harvey being personally recommended by drummer Jabali Billy Hart, then departing Herbie Hancock’s Mwandishi band, to follow him as Hancock’s drummer in a more groove-oriented edition of the keyboardist’s next group. What seismically transpired was Herbie Hancock’s million-selling LP Head Hunters (1974) which contained the Funk-Jazz Fusion classic “Chameleon” (co-composed by Harvey) and Mason’s slinky, decelerated Afro-Soul arrangement of Hancock’s 1962 standard “Watermelon Man.” This ushered in a string of recordings that now comprise “Fusion and Contemporary Jazz 101,” including Grover Washington, Jr.’s Mister Magic, Bob James’ Three, Patrice Rushen’s Before the Dawn, The Brecker Brothers’ self-titled debut album, Lee Ritenour’s Captain Fingers and John Klemmer’s Touch. Mase also contributed orchestral percussion to the late, great Charles Stepney’s final completed production: Ramsey Lewis’ awe-inspiring Salongo album. The icing on the cake for this phenomenal ‘70s output was his contribution to George Benson’s triple-platinum 6–song masterpiece, Breezin’.
“The Mase” was now a force with which to be reckoned! From timpani, bells and vibes as the secret sauce “fifth percussionist” of Earth Wind and Fire (onscreen in the movie That’s the Way of The World and on wax within their high watermark album Spirit) to the tastiest of inside ad libs on Minnie Riperton’s “Memory Lane” to an intricate marching drum cadence on Chick Corea’s “Tweedle Dee,” Harvey honed a knack for more than nailing intricately written parts to a ‘T.’ He added that “Mase Magic,” lifting a piece of music from ordinary to extraordinary.
In 1976, Harvey Mason signed with Clive Davis’ Arista Records where he recorded five stylistically diversified LP’s (highlighted by1977’s Funk In a Mason Jar) dynamically dotted with all-star players that captured the wide-range arc of his artistry. For those albums as well as Ratamacue (recorded in 1996 for Atlantic Records), Mase earned 5 Grammy nominations. Later within the outstanding acoustic jazz recording With All My Heart (Trios) on Bluebird/RCA in 2004, Harvey conceived, led and recorded a life’s dream project featuring 11 of the world’s finest traditional jazz pianists (including the late greats Hank Jones, Cedar Walton and Mulgrew Miller), along with 8 phenomenal bassists (including Ron Carter and the late Charlie Haden). The acclaimed CD received the prestigious Silver Disc Award from Swing Journal magazine in Japan, and Herbie Hancock garnered a Grammy for his solo on “Speak Like A Child.”
Harvey Mason has written songs recorded by artists ranging from Nancy Wilson to Mary J. Blige. As a producer, he introduced the world to Hawaii-based Christian jazz septet Seawind, bringing one of the most in-demand horn arrangers (Jerry Hey) and horn sections (Seawind Horns) to Los Angeles, and introducing them to Quincy Jones. Mason produced the debut of techno funkateers Midnight Star (The Beginning), co-produced Lee Ritenour’s Pop hit “Is it You” (1981), and co- produced Dionne Warwick’s rendition of Sting’s “Fragile” with the diva herself.
Mason’s precision playing and taste found him gracing movie scores for such renowned composers as Michael Giacchino (Cars 2, Mission Impossible 1, 2, 3 & 4, Up, Star Trek, Speed Racer), Michel Colombier (the score for Prince’s Purple Rain), Michel Legrand (Dingo featuring Miles Davis), Dave Grusin (Three Days of The Condor, The Fabulous Baker Boys, On Golden Pond), John Williams (Hook), Quincy Jones (The Wiz, The Color Purple), Lalo Schifrin (Rush Hour 1,2 & 3 and The Enforcer), Isaac Hayes and orchestrator Johnny Allen (Three Tough Guys, Truck Turner) and his son Harvey Mason, Jr. (Dreamgirls, the James Brown biopic Get On Up and the animated feature Sing) to name only a few. Harvey’s personal writing credits in movie music include Only the Strong and Deadly Takeover, plusorchestration for TV’s “Diagnosis Murder” and “Mattlock.” The Mase also enjoyed an astounding run as drummer for the Academy Awards 25 times.
Mason’s most unsung endeavor is co-founding and serving as Chief Creative Officer of Haven Media Group, a forward thinking but now sadly defunct company with a mission to take hit making veteran artists without recording contracts and reintroduce them to the marketplace with new recordings and competitive music video presentations, also creating a library of current work for them. Participating artists included Deniece Williams, Howard Hewett, Maysa and Dawn Robinson. Very busy for a spell, Haven also produced original jingles for Lincoln/Mercury, theme songs for the Bermuda Tourism Board and the Angel City Football Classic 2008, and the aforementioned anthem for Barack Obama’s inaugural campaign.
As a brand endorsee, Harvey Mason came to the end of an over 20 year association with Gretsch Drums to climb aboard the Canopus Drums chain in 2013, enjoying a direct line to the company’s President and all of its exquisitely crafted instruments. Mase also switched from cymbals manufacturer Sabian (where he was one of the company’s first signees) to become part owner of a new company created by craftsman Murat Diril (MD) in Samsun, Turkey. The Mase remains faithful to the Vic Firth Company, creators of Mason signature drumsticks: “The Chameleon,” a custom stick bag made in London by Fusion Bags, and exclusively turns to DW (Drum Workshop) for all hardware, pedals and stands. The king also has his own trademarked “Roc–N–Soc” hydraulic drum throne! And he’s working with Sensory Percussion on mind-blowing new technology to add electronics to his acoustic drums, giving him the ability to create a cutting–edged one–man show.
Accompanied by his son, Max, Harvey traveled to Gambia, Africa at the invitation of then President Yahya Jammeh to expose their musicians to Western concepts of making music, and documenting it (audio & visual) with top line technology. His ongoing work as a clinician found him as visiting faculty at the University of West London where he is slated to receive an honorary doctorate in May 2017. And his increased profile as a performer of his own recordings, instigated by his most recent CD, Chameleon, in 2015, resulted in extensive touring in Europe and Asia with a crack band which included saxophonist Kamasi Washington, keyboardists John Beasley and Mark de Clive-Lowe, and bassist Freddie Washington. In March 2017, Harvey Mason’s Chameleon Band will play the all–star international 3–day Java Jazz Festival in Jakarta, Indonesia.
In 2015, the institution where Harvey began his advanced studies, the Berklee College of Music, presented him with an Honorary Doctorate degree for all that he went on to achieve and all the musicians he has thus inspired. Mason’s 4-point Advice for all serious musicians on the climb and grind: Be diverse; Be on time; Be able to communicate with all levels of people in an intelligent manner; Be able to get along with all manner of personalities.
Reflecting on his body of work in an interview for Drumhead magazine, Mason mused, “Fortunately I was there during the heyday which I call the Golden Era of Recording. I worked every day, three sessions a day or more, weekends and around the clock. It was my dream. I had no idea whether I was really going to be able to accomplish it but I was just single-mindedly into it. So I’m really happy to have gone through that and spent all those years doing it. I never thought about it at the time – but when I go back now and look over my discography, I just shake my head…‘Oh, my God.’ If I had come into the business now, there’s no way to end up with those kinds of credits.”
In 2017, The Mase will unveil perhaps his most special project of all: one he is quietly shaping with both of his sons, Harvey & Max. He turns 70 in February.
A meticulous, curious, diverse, tasteful, focused and ferocious groove master, Harvey Mason has accomplished the unimaginable while simultaneously making the unthinkable mighty–mighty real.
Biography Composed and Edited by A. Scott Galloway (January 2017)
