GUARANTEED: IF YOU HAVE EVEN A HALF DECENT ALBUM COLLECTION THAT INCLUDES MUSIC FROM THE 70’S-80’S, DRUMMER HARVEY MASON IS IN YOUR HOUSE. THE MOST IN-DEMAND DRUMMER OF OUR GENERATION, HE’S ON COUNTLESS JAZZ AND POP ALBUMS AND HAS AN ALMOST MIDAS TOUCH IN THAT HE’S PERFORMED ON SCORES OF GOLD ALBUMS, INCLUDING GEORGE BENSON’S “BREEZIN’” AND OF COURSE THE PLANET CHANGING “HEADHUNTERS” WITH HERBIE HANCOCK, BOTH IN THE 70S WHEN PEOPLE FILLED UP PLACES LIKE THE HOLLYWOOD BOWL TO ACTUALLY HEAR JAZZ. HARD TO BELIEVE THESE DAYS!
SO, WHILE BEING IN THE STUDIO FOR GUYS LIKE DONALD BYRD AND GROVER WASHINGTON JR., HIS OWN DISCOGRAPHY AS A LEADER IS FAIRLY SLIM,WHICH IS WHY HIS NEWEST RELEASE, CHAMELEON, IS SUCH A TREAT. ON IT, HE REVISITS A NUMBER OF THE SONGS THAT HE HELPED PUT ON THE AIRWAVES, AND IT’S A TREAT! HE’S BEEN PLAYING BEFORE CROWDS AGAIN AS WELL, MOST RECENTLY IN LA AT THE BLUE WHALE, WHERE THE THREE SCORE PLUS DRUMMER FILLED THE PACKED HOUSE WITH GLORIOUS FUNK AND FUSION FUN.
WE RECENTLY CAUGHT UP WITH THE MASTER OF THE TRAPS AND GOT TO KNOW WHAT MAKES THIS STICKMEISTER SUCH AN IN DEMAND MAN. AS YOU WILL SEE, TECHNIQUE IS ONLY A PART OF THE EQUATION TO BE A MASTER OF ONE’S CRAFT.
YOU RECENTLY HAD A GREAT GIG AT THE BLUE WHALE. WHAT’S THE IMPETUS ABOUT GETTING IN FRONT OF AN AUDIENCE?
My latest cd. I’ve been making recordings for a long time. I’ve been pretty lucky that way. I took a band to Japan a couple of years ago because no one has ever heard in concert me play the music that I played with Herbie Hancock, the Headhunters stuff. Japan asked me to do that, and I put a band together and went over there. The response was so popular that I got the idea that I should re-record, or at least start from that point and record some new music. That was the original idea. After that, it morphed into all of the other songs that I’ve recorded and have been sampled by other artists. So, it just grew into that and I ended up hooking up with a producer at Concord, Chris Dunne, and we just worked together for 1 ½ years how we were going to put it together. We got together a million young guys and worked on recreating I had recorded and played on, but changing it a little bit, you know. Adding a new tinge to it.
We did a version of “Chameleon” with Bill Summers who we asked to come on and write something, so he did, which made you immediately identify with that era.
It was fun, because I had never really played the Headhunters stuff live before. I never traveled with Herbie. I hardly went out with anyone. I stayed in the studios. That’s why my resume’ is so silly, because I just stayed, went to work, played with everyone and recorded. People asked me to go on the road, but I’d always say, “Sorry, but I’m living my dream. No thank you.”
HOW DID YOU FIRST GET INTERESTED IN DRUMMING.
No one, really, but when I was a kid my mom says I was running around, banging on things like pots and pans or the floor with spoons and anything, and she felt that I had some natural talent. In elementary schools, there were demonstrations where you could play any instrument, and I chose drums and began taking lessons in the third grade. It was very natural, and I was very, very good. The teachers recognized me and kept pushing me. But, I was also not playing drum sets; I was playing drums in the orchestra and playing in the band. I think that by the time I got into the 8th grade I needed a drum set because I didn’t have one, so I couldn’t play in the school band. But the drummer got sick on the night of a show; I didn’t have a chance to rehearse with the drum set, but I played that gig and really loved it. So did the audience, and in it were some professional musicians and they started calling me to play little gigs. That’s how I started playing the drum set, because before that I was just playing in the band, orchestra and bugle corp.
Eventually I started playing and working more and more; I started getting into jazz in high school, and I got a great gig in my junior year playing in this great jazz club in Atlantic City. I didn’t realize that I was going to be a drummer until I read an article in Downbeat Magazine my senior year. I thought that I was going to be a lawyer or something. But, I’d been around a lot of musicians and I thought they had such a cool life just traveling and playing. I got a close look at it early.
Then I read an article about studio musicians and I thought “THAT’S what I want to do.” You are your own boss, you go to work every day, you have a stable life. So, I then applied to music school and went there with the idea that I would be a studio musician, and that’s how it happened.
I went to Berklee for three semesters and then I left for the New England Conservatory of Music. I got a full scholarship and I graduated from New England Conservatory.
WHAT’S THE ADVANTAGE OF MUSIC SCHOOL VERSES THE EDUCATION OF “THE ROAD?”
Going out on the road was what I didn’t want. It’s either make or break, feast or famine. You don’t have any insurance or anything. There’s nothing steady in your life, and I wanted something steady. When I graduated from New England, I graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Education and Performance, so could teach and have a way of making a living. Previously I had been very, very poor; I was grown up on a welfare family.
HOW DID YOU GET THE ERROL GARNER AND GEORGE SHEARING GIGS?
When I was at school in Berklee I would be playing with anyone who came into town. They had a lot of jazz clubs, and a lot of guys would come into town without drummers, and I’d be one of the first call guys in Boston to work with people. So I got a call from Errol Garner to work in Boston at a place called Paul’s Mall . I worked with him; it was towards the end of the school year, and he was heading out to Europe, and he asked me if I would join him. I said “Absolutely!” So my first year outside of Boston was being with him in Europe, and we stayed there for something like six weeks.
Traveling around with Errol Garner was fun. I remember that he paid me $700 a week, and that was amazing. It was 1970. I didn’t even ask for anything; that’s just what he gave me. I had a great time, touring Europe with him.
So, I came back and I was planning on moving to LA when I graduated. So I drove to LA to join my wife who was from LA, and when I got there of course I was trying to give out business cards and meet people and someone told me that George Shearing was having auditions. I called up and they gave me an audition, and he ended up hiring me on the spot after I played. I had to call Errol and tell him that I wasn’t going to be in his band anymore because I was now going to be living in the West Coast, as that’s where all the studio work was. I took the job with George; I had a job, I was in LA and I could still do the studio thing, and that’s what I did.
HOW OLD WERE YOU AT THIS TIME
I was twenty or something.
WHAT DID YOU LEARN FROM PLAYING WITH GUYS LIKE GARNER AND SHEARING?
Taste, groove and don’t overplay; just play to the situation. I really learned how to play to each situation and how to swing it. With Errol, it was making it feel great and playing the right stuff. Not to overplay. I learned a lot about taste and making good choices. Making it feel great. With Errol, I had to make it feel perfect.
SO, TO BE A PROFESSIONAL MUSCIAN, IT’S NOT JUST HAVING A LOT OF CHOPS AND WAITING FOR THE WORLD TO KNOCK AT YOUR DOOR. AS YOU’VE SHOWN, YOU HAVE TO HUSTLE.
Yeah, you have to work hard and hustle; you need to meet a lot of people and then be prepared when you get the opportunity. It’s also about being able to get along with people in every situation, being engaging and being able to speak well. To me, it’s a lot of old school stuff-it’s about engaging with people but also having some fire inside, being confident and knowing what you’re doing.
HOW DID THE HEADHUNTERS SESSION COME ABOUT?
I had made a lot of records by the time I did that. I was known as a studio musician. I had been playing in the 70s with a lot of Blue Note stuff, Carole King, Helen Ready, doing all kinds of different things. By the time I got to Herbie I had already made a bunch of gold records. All those Blue Note records I did were big crossover records with Donald Byrd, Carole King and Grover Washington. Herbie was aware of that, and Billy Hart, his drummer from Mogadishu, when that band broke up he recommended me to Herbie, as he was going for a more commercial kind of sound and commercial success. Herbie had been travelling around, playing a lot of bebop and was scuffling around and wanted something else.
I played with him and he immediately hired me to be in his band. To make the album was primarily the deal. As soon as I made that project I went back to studio work; it took something like 2 ½ months to make that record.
WERE YOU SURPRISED THAT A JAZZ ALBUM COULD GET THAT POPULAR?
Not really, because in the 60s, the jazz I grew up with was very popular. There were records by Eddie Harris did like that great “Theme from Exodus” and a lot of other records that crossed over. Jazz was pretty popular back then. Where I was living it was music in the clubs almost 24 hours a day in the summer time and on the weekends. People just stayed in the clubs back then, especially with the organ bands like Jimmy Smith, Jack McDuff ,“Groove” Holmes, Don Patterson and that whole thing. I came through that whole jazz era there and it was just music, music, music. It was very popular. So, to me it was just a very natural thing, so when I started making those gold records for Blue Note it was very natural. We were having a ball, like a Motown thing, with the Motown factory guys, but we were doing it at Blue Note with the Mizell Brothers. They took the concept from Motown and brought it to Blue Note because one of the Mizell Brothers (Alphonzo) had formerly worked at Motown and we were just creating records, going in and playing and having a great time.
IT SEEMED SO EASY THEN. IF SOMEONE ASKED YOU TODAY HOW TO MAKE JAZZ POPULAR AGAIN, WHAT WOULD YOU SAY?
Well, things are so different now. It doesn’t seem to be as much about music now as it does about the show. When I see a lot of the jazz artists now, it’s more about the show than the music to me. There are different kinds of jazz, some is just a big show and for others it’s about the music. It all depends on where you want to go.
ONE TIME YOU ALSO DID SOME PRODUCTION FOR A GROUP CALLED SEAWIND. WHAT WAS THAT ALL ABOUT?
They were from Hawaii; a great band. A friend of mine turned me on to them . I heard them and I immediately invited them to record some music. A lot of guys promised them things but never followed through. They were amazing; they eventually moved over here, and I produced their first couple records for CTI Records. It was an amazing band; I used their horn section for my band and my records. I introduced them to Quincy Jones, and Quincy went nuts over them. The rest was history, the eventually broke up, but it was a great, great band.
THAT WAS ONE OF THE FIRST OVERTLY MODERN CHRISTIAN BANDS AT THE TIME AS WELL
Yeah, they were overtly Christian. We tried to play both sides of the scene, but from either side you could still see what was going on. It worked out well on all sides-they were great musicians. They lived together, ate together. It was like a commune; over in Hawaii they would practice their music all day and flawlessly. I was really sorry when they broke up
ARE YOU INVOLVED WITH ANY CHURCH OR RELGIOUS GROUP?
I grew up Baptists, and I have two sisters that are ministers, and a brother-in-law that is a minister. I go to church occasionally, but I’m not right now “officially” engaged with any religious organizations. I’m just “general Christianity.” What keeps me spiritually grounded is that I was born to play music. God gave me a gift , and I realize that. So, love music and it’s my life. It feels so natural for me to play, and I’m always trying to get better take each day at a time.
You never know when you’re not going to be able to play anymore, so I appreciate every time I play. I always play with all of my heart and my soul. Music is IT.
IT’S LIKE MY PASTOR SAYS, “YOU’LL KNOW WHEN GOD’S DONE WITH YOU, AS HE’LL CALL YOU HOME.”
That’s right!
ANY OF YOUR RECORDINGS THAT YOU’RE MOST PROUD OF?
To tell you the truth, I’m proud of every session that I’ve ever done, and I’m looking forward to doing more, and anyone I haven’t worked with yet I’d like to work with. But, I’d probably say that the Headhunters session probably impacted my career in the jazz world more. But I’ve done so many other records and Records of the Year, so all of those records have been important.
Looking at the complete body of my work, to me, is something that gives me great pride. I’m so happy that I’ve had the opportunity to record with so many people and so much varied music and so many different genres. People started calling me “Chameleon” and it just so happens that I was the co-writer of that song. Things all came together when we made this new cd and we called it Chameleon, so to me it’s like coming full circle. They way it’s been accepted-the cd has had an amazing response.
ANY FRANK SINATRA STORIES YOU CAN TELL FROM YOUR TIME WITH HIM?
None, except that he gave me a big thumbs up at a rehearsal for a big show we did. That was a lot of fun. I knew I was going to work with him and I went to the store to get a record of one of the songs we were doing in one of the shows and I learned the fill that Sonny Payne had played. So, at the rehearsal, the first time we played it I did the fill with the whole deal and Frank looks at me and gives me the thumbs up to say “Thank You”. That was amazing.
DID YOU EVER WAKE UP ONE MORNING AND SAY TO YOURSELF, “WOW. RECORDED WITH BENSON, SINATRA AND HANCOCK. I’VE MADE IT.”
I never really went that way, because every day I’m trying to prove myself. I’m still saying to myself, “Man, I’ve got to be there on time. I’ve got to play really well. I’m never satisfied, and I’m always trying to improve myself. Being on time for a gig is a big deal as well. You’ve got to be able to play well, but there are so many other elements that factor into success, especially for a studio musician. One of the important things is being on time, and comfortably on time. Being ready to roll and take care of business, interact with people and be able to interpret what people are saying and to be able to give something more than what is just written on the paper. So, there are just so many elements to being a successful musician, especially a studio musician.
And I think that the best studio musicians are some of the best musicians on the planet. Bar none. I feel honored to be counted among those musicians. I don’t think they get enough credit, those guys. They are amazing, amazing musicians who in most cases could have gone into any direction and play any music they’d want to play, from classical to jazz. So, I have the highest respect for those guys, and am happy to be counted as one of them.
WHO ARE THESE ‘STUDIO STUDS’?
Neil Stubenhouse, Mike Lang, Larry Bunker, Victor Feldman , Emil Richards…people like that were just world class. These and so many others I could mention are so incredible that they could have played anything.
WHAT DO YOU LOOK FOR WHEN YOU GO TO A SHOW AND SEE A DRUMMER?
The first thing, does he have a good beat? Is there a groove? How is the sound-does he get a good sound out of his instrument? Does he have an individual style? But, first and foremost is musicianship. Whether he’s a good musician; when he accompanies the music does he nudge the music forward and complement the music to the best that it can be. That’s what I look for in a drummer.
I don’t have a favorite drummer. I like to watch a lot of them. When I was younger I loved Roy Haynes, Tony Williams and a guy named Randy Gelispie as well as Buddy Rich and Elvin Jones. Art Taylor was one of my favorites when I was younger. Roy Haynes is still playing at 88. I was just talking to him a few weeks ago.
WHAT IS YOUR PET PEEVE WHEN YOU SEE A DRUMMER? WHAT DRIVES YOU CRAZY ABOUT THEM?
When he plays too much. Playing too much out of the context of the music. He disregards the music and is just selfish. He doesn’t complement the music. Some guys can play busy but they’re within the scope of the music.
For example, Jack DeJohnette is a wonderful drummer, and plays busy most of the time. But it’s very musical. When he plays with Keith Jarrett it’s just mysterious. He’s wonderful.
WHAT WAS THE TOUGHEST SESSION YOU WERE EVER ON?
From a patience standpoint, Steely Dan. They took so long with so many takes and they didn’t seem to know what they wanted. It was just on and on, over and over and over and over again. And they had some real good players. That tried my patience so much that I finally left.
ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE EQUATION, WHO HAVE YOU RECORDED FOR AND THOUGHT TO YOURSELF, “THIS GUY’S A MASTER OF THE STUDIO”?
Quincy Jones is a master of recording and producing. He gets the most out of everyone who works with him. First of all, everyone wants to play with him because he’s a masterful producer. He’s been around a long time. He just has a way with everyone; it’s just his personality how he demands things from you. It’s subtle, not screaming at you or messing with you. He knows how to put a record together.
ANY FUTURE GOALS?
Just to keep playing and keep pushing the music.
AS THE BIBLE SAYS, IF YOU WANT TO BE A LEADER, YOU MUST BE A SERVANT OF ALL. AS YOU COULD TELL FROM THIS INTERVIEW, HARVEY MASON SERVES BOTH THE MUSIC AND THE MUSICIANS. EVEN AS A PRO WHO HAS “MADE IT”, HE STILL WENT OUT AND BOUGHT AN ALBUM TO MASTER A DRUM ROLL TO SERVE FRANK SINATRA DURING A RECORDING SESSION. CAN YOU THINK OF ANYONE WHO WOULD DO THAT THESE DAYS?
I OFTEN TELL MY COLLEGE STUDENTS THAT THE THREE MOST IMPORTANT WORDS FOR AN EMPLOYEE ARE “AND THEN SOME.” IN OTHER WORDS, DO YOUR JOB, AND THEN SOME. THAT IS HOW YOU RISE TO THE TOP. HARVEY MASON HAS DEMONSTRATED THAT WORK ETHIC HIS WHOLE LIFE, LIVING AS THE SERVANT OFALL. WE SALUTE THE CHAMELEON!