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Brad Mason

Co-leader of the Mason Brothers Quintet
Trumpeter w/ Blood, Sweat & Tears 2015 - Present
Trumpeter w/ Diana Ross 2013 - Present
Professor at Northwestern University 2011 - Present
Trumpeter w/ The Rhythm Shop 2010 - Present
Trumpeter w/ Jessica Simpson 2010
Trumpeter w/ John Mayer 2007 - 2009
Trumpeter w/ The BombSquad 1998 - 2005

Brad Mason (trumpet) was born in England. When only 5 years old, he began trumpet lessons with his father, Barry. At 9, he began piano lessons and played both instruments at school and outside recitals. By 14, he was performing three to four times a week in dance halls, theaters, clubs, and pubs. Though his repertoire included a variety of musical styles, the young musician was drawn early to jazz and improvisation. At age 17, Brad won the national Daily Telegraph Young Jazz Soloist Award and was a featured performer at John Dankworth’s Wavendon Jazz School.
​ Later that year, Brad moved to the United States to study, on a full tuition scholarship, at the Berklee College of Music in Massachusetts where he met and studied with Hal Crook and Phil Wilson, among others. He won his second Daily Telegraph Young Jazz Soloist Under 25 Award in 1993, the same year his younger brother, Elliot, won the Under 21 category. Brad represented Berklee at performances throughout the United States, and in 1995 he traveled to Israel to perform at Dave Liebman’s annual I.A.S.J. conference. He received the Clark Terry Award in recognition of outstanding performance abilities from Berklee College of Music in both 1994 and 1995. It was during these years at Berklee that Brad developed his interest in the electronic valve instrument (EVI) and he soon integrated it into his performances. After graduating from Berklee, Brad moved to New York City where he quickly became in demand as a trumpet and EVI player.
​ Mason performed at the 31st American Music Awards as a member of the band, Bombsquad, the recipients of the American Music Award for Best Unsigned Band of 2003.
In January 2007, Mason joined the John Mayer Band for a 2 1/2 year stint of recording and touring world wide. Soon after this in 2011 Brad became a faculty member at NorthWestern University in Chicago as their Jazz Trumpet Professor.
He started working with Diana Ross as her lead trumpet in the summer of 2013 and then joined Blood Sweat & Tears as a full time member in June 2015.

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Album Review

Mike Fahie Jazz Orchestra: Urban(e)

Read "Urban(e)" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky


There's a rocky history surrounding jazz-classical hybrids. But, in truth, that has little to do with any potential incompatibility. Instead, it's usually misguided maneuvering and/or an excessive show of dominant traits from one side or the other that mars said unions. When done right a wedding of those worlds can truly birth brilliance. Just listen to Urban(e) for proof. Noted trombonist, composer, arranger and educator Mike Fahie's unabashed love for classical music and jazz is clear and ...

1
Album Review

Mike Fahie Jazz Orchestra: Urban(e)

Read "Urban(e)" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Most Western music, irrespective of its origin and premise, inhabits the same harmonic, chordal and rhythmic universe. So it should not be surprising that classical music, in the hands of a skilled arranger, can be readily recast in a jazz idiom, even one that is housed within a big-band framework. On Urban(e), trombonist Mike Fahie's New York-based Jazz Orchestra braves that challenge, quickening Fahie's translations of works by Frederic Chopin, Igor Stravinsky, Claude Debussy, Bela Bartok, Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky and ...

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Primary Instrument

Trumpet

Location

New York City

Willing to teach

Intermediate to advanced

Credentials/Background

Professor of Jazz Trumpet at Northwestern University, Chicago.
Private Trumpet Lessons (NYC or Skype)

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Urban(e)

Greenleaf Music
2020

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Videos

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