Sean Mason

Review:

This is the forty seventh in a series of special Jazz on the Tube reviews of live stream performances.

Support live music – even when it’s streamed!

Sean Mason began playing piano when he was 13, was largely self-taught in his native North Carolina where he gained early experience playing in church.

He has since developed into an impressive swing-based pianist, one who toured with the Branford Marsalis-Kurt Elling Quartet and seems headed towards a major career.

On his May 28, 2020 LiveStream, the picture is backwards but the music is so enjoyable that it is being reviewed anyway.

During this enjoyable and very musical performance, Sean Mason plays the obscure swing standard “If You Were Mine” (hinting at Teddy Wilson and Erroll Garner), Duke Ellington’s “I Let A Song Go Out Of My Heart,” Ray Charles’ soulful and sadly relevant “Hard Times,” an original uptempo blues, Bud Powell’s “The Fruit,” and “Tomorrow” (from Annie) which becomes “We Shall Overcome.”

– Scott Yanow