Jazz Articles about Harvey Mason

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Chris Standring: Wonderful World

by Richard J Salvucci
September 7, 2021

Many years ago, there was a radio station, WJBR, broadcasting from Wilmington, Delaware. The call sign stood for Just Beautiful Radio and that was precisely what you got. No-one called it easy listening or anything like that--it was the early 1960s--but listeners got a predictable dose of Percy Faith, Ray Conniff, Frank Chacksfield, nothing too challenging. The announcers had a predictable style as well—modulated, mellow, reassuring. In those days, with the possibility of nuclear war never far from anyone's mind, ...

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Chris Standring: Wonderful World

by Pierre Giroux
August 19, 2021

Chris Standring is a Los Angeles-based contemporary jazz guitarist who was originally raised in Buckinghamshire, England. He has always had an itch to record an album of standards and that was scratched with the release of Wonderful World . Through the marvels of technology, Standring was able to record the trio tracks in several locations in California with some bold face names such as Peter Erskine, Chuck Berghofer and Randy Brecker, while the orchestral input was arranged and conducted by ...

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Chris Standring: Wonderful World

by Jack Bowers
July 29, 2021

Wonderful World, the fourteenth album as leader by British guitarist Chris Standring, was no doubt recorded with the best of intentions. And make no mistake, the music is warm and lovely, furnishing an opulent showcase for Standring's mellow guitar. Aside from that, however, there's not a whole lot to say. Standring's “orchestra" consists of a nineteen-member string section, while Geoff Gascoyne's syrupy arrangements call to mind popular string-laden sessions from the 1950s and '60s, “easy listening" albums for “late-night lovers" ...

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Harvey Mason: Chameleon

by Jeff Winbush
May 14, 2014

When you've been making music as long as Harvey Mason has as a solo artist and manning the drum chair for Herbie Hancock, George Benson, Donald Byrd,and more artists than there is space here to list, you are not only pleasing longtime fans, you're making new converts as well. Some who might ask, “This guy's pretty good. Wonder what else he's done?" Mason's answer is his first album in a decade, Chameleon and he both looks back at ...

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The Complete Arista Albums Collection

by John Kelman
December 14, 2012

When fusion first emerged in the late 1960s/early '70s with artists like trumpeter Miles Davis, pianist Chick Corea and guitarist John McLaughlin, the emphasis was on guitar and keyboard heavy lineups like Return to Forever and Mahavishnu Orchestra, with an equally strong predilection for the intensity and volume of rock and a kind of thundering funk that was different than the kind of music coming from R&B and soul artists like Stevie Wonder and Earth, Wind & Fire. Parallel to ...

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Harvey Mason: With All My Heart

by Javier AQ Ortiz
August 20, 2005

Harvey Mason's motto on With All My Heart seems to be “The one who plays drums in a jazz trio with the most bad-ass pianists and bassists wins. Arguably, that can be also stated of his entire career, as he has played and recorded with a mind-numbing amount of artists through various historical periods and musical styles. The lengthy and illustrious development of the quintessential small jazz group is definitely boosted by this recording.The premise of the production ...

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Harvey Mason: With All My Heart

by AAJ Staff
July 8, 2004

Harvey Mason With All My Heart RCA 2004

Straight-ahead jazz fans and the more “purist" minded of jazz listeners among us have a tendency to write off the overall musical abilities of those who play contemporary or smooth jazz. This often boils down to little more than guilt by association, as one will make an assumption about the musical talent of someone who performs music they don't really respect. Just because of ...