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Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular MusicA B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZMASON BROTHERS, Brad and ElliotTwo talented young jazzmen from whom much will be heard. At a typical jazz evening at the Red Lion in Norwich c.1990, the music was led by one of Britain's finest drummers, Jack Parnell, who powered the Ted Heath band '44-51, was a TV music director for 20 years, recorded with Zoot Sims etc. Trumpeter Gerry Salisbury (b 7 August 1929, London) had played bass with Mick Mulligan (see George Melly), cornet and trumpet with trad bands, also took up flugelhorn and valve trombone: his lovely tone and pretty ideas are similar to those of Bix and Chet. Retired insurance executive Peter Oxborough plays clarinet, alto and tenor saxes and has a different delightful personality on each; Norwich stalwart Mike Capocci was on keyboards and there were several others. After the interval two very tall slender young men joined the group: one thought, 'How nice. They're letting some kids sit in.' They were teenaged brothers Bradley (b 24 July 1973) on trumpet and Elliot Mason (b 13 January 1977) on trombone: both from Norwich, their father is a musician and mother a singer; Bradley already had a scholarship to Berklee with Elliott soon to follow, and they played so well that the older men were both inspired and challenged: the result was joyous swing. Bradley won the Clark Terry Award '94-5, graduated from Berklee May '95 and has added bass trumpet to his bag; Elliot played valve and slide trombones, experimented with keyboards and electronics, won the Frank Rosolino Award '94, Slide Hampton Award '95-6, graduated May '96. They have performed with Claudio Roditi, Natalie Cole, Billy Pierce and dozens of others; they had moved to NYC and when they returned to the Red Lion the joint was packed. In 2010 the brothers were leading busy freelance careers in NYC. Elliot had joined the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and played for a week with Maria Schneider in 2009; they had played on albums such as SVETI's Where I Come From by a group called SVETI, and Jacob Gwizdala's Live at the 55 Bar; the Mason Brothers Band was an octet including Brit Chris Potter on reeds and Joe Locxke on vibes, and the first album was called Two Sides, One Story (they are not to be confused with a folk act called the Mason Brothers). They had a MySpace page which didn't work very well (their discography was not available) and their album did not seem to be available at Amazon, B&N.com, the JazzLoft or CDBaby. But they are no doubt playing their tails off, and today's music has to come first. |