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Mason Razavi & Bennett Roth-Newell: After You
by Tyran Grillo
Guitarist Mason Razavi and pianist Bennett Roth-Newell place years of collaborative experience under the microscope in this studio album. The performances, as wide-ranging as they are intimate, comprise a generous handful of original dough with a few familiar tunes thrown in for leavening. In the latter vein, we are treated to three slices of optimism, starting with Clifford Brown's “Joy Spring." In addition to setting the tone for a set of sometimes-whimsical crosstalk, it showcases the duo's ability to unravel ...
read moreMason Razavi: Quartet Plus, Volume 2
by Tyran Grillo
If “Riverbed," which opens Mason Razavi's burnished sequel to Quartet Plus (First Orbit Sounds, 2014) were a doorway, it would welcome listeners like guests of honor to an intimate yet lively gathering of close friends and family. Such is the feeling of hospitality and warmth that pervades this thoroughly nourishing album. Over this and the next four tunes, all Razavi originals, the guitarist's bandmates regale us with one slick tale after another. The groovier “Blues in New Hues" highlights pianist ...
read moreMason Razavi: Quartet Plus, Volume 2
by Jack Bowers
The “plus" in San Francisco Bay area-based guitarist Mason Razavi's CD Quartet Plus, Volume 2 is a front line consisting of trumpet, trombone and three reeds, which on the second half of the album more than doubles the size of Razavi's quartet. There are many ways that could be done. For example, the nonet tracks might have been interspersed at random, placed ahead of the quartet tracks, replaced the quartet on odd-or even-numbered tracks and so on. But this is ...
read moreMason Razavi/Bennett Roth-Newell: After You
by Dan Bilawsky
While guitarist Mason Razavi and pianist Bennett Roth-Newell have had plenty of opportunities to connect musically in Razavi's Quartet, his expanded Quartet Plus, and elsewhere, this marks the first time that this pair has pared things down to record as a duo. Over the course of eight songs--five originals, two jazz standards, and an album-ending take on a classic from The Beatles--Razavi and Roth-Newell manage to establish themselves as centrists with a shared belief in the powers ...
read moreMason Razavi: Quartet Plus
by Tyran Grillo
With the release of Quartet Plus, San Francisco Bay Area-based jazzman Mason Razavi joins ranks with a talented crop of guitarists spearheaded by Hristo Vitchev on First Orbit Sounds. His debut for the label fronts all-original compositions and contextualizes his tactile playing in a plush band setting.Half of the album features Razavi in quartet with Bennett Roth-Newell on piano and keyboards, Dan Robbins on bass, and Cody Rhodes on drums. Together they take on the night with thoughtful ...
read moreTake Five With Mason Razavi
by Mason Razavi
Meet Mason Razavi: Starting out as a self-taught rock guitarist, Mason began studying jazz and playing in working rock bands as a teenager. After hearing an Andres Segovia recording for the first time at age 22, Mason changed directions dramatically and focused on the classical guitar for several years before returning to jazz and the electric guitar. Though first and foremost a jazz guitarist/composer, his diverse background has led him to play in settings ranging from rock bands to ...
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