Norman Mason (American musician)

Norman Mason (né Norman Kellogg Mason; 25 November 1895 Nassau, Bahamas – 6 July 1971 St. Louis) was an American jazz clarinetist, multi-instrumentalist, and bandleader.[1][2][3][4]

This article is about the American jazz musician. For the Canadian musician, Norman Byron Mason, see Dutch Mason. For for others with similar names, see Norman Mason.

Career

Mason was born in Nassau, Bahamas, to Ellis Hartman Mason (aka Ellis Henry Mason; 1872–1937) and Alice Leanora Bartlett (maiden; died 1942). He immigrated to the United States in 1913 and, initially, lived in Miami. He began playing trumpet at age eight,[5] – as did his brother, Henry Mason (né Henry Morris Mason; born 1906). He toured with revues such as the Rabbit Foot Minstrel Show while still in his teens, and soon after became active on the New Orleans jazz scene. Soon after he played in bands in Chicago and St. Louis.

At the end of the 1910s Mason played with Fate Marable, where he began playing alto saxophone. Toward the beginning of the next decade, Mason was a member of Ed Allen's Whispering Gold Band,[1] and soon after led his own ensemble, the Carolina Melodists (though they had no actual connection to North or South Carolina). For one year, he and the Melodists played on radio stations WIL and KMOX in St. Louis.[5] From 1927 to 1933 Mason returned to duty under Marable,[6] and after leaving his employ Mason began playing clarinet in Chicago and St. Louis bands.

In the mid-1950s, Mason headed the Dixie Stompers band in St. Louis.[lower-alpha 1] The group's April 6, 1957, performance at Westminster College's annual jazz concert was recorded by Blue Note Records[7] and released as Jazz st Westminster College on a 12-inch LP by Delmar Records[lower-alpha 2] (catalog no. DL-201; matrix runout nos.: DL-201-A & DL-201-B). Bob Koester, founder of Delmar, wrote the liner notes.[8]

Mason was a clarinetist with Singleton Palmer's Dixieland Six,[lower-alpha 3] which, after two years as the regular band at the Opera House in Gaslight Square, recorded a live session there in 1961. It was released as Dixie by Gaslight on an LP by Norman Records (NL 101), a St. Louis-based jazz label founded a year earlier by Norman Wienstroer (né Norman Henry Wienstroer; 1916–1999). The album was Palmer's first recording as a leader.

Mason lived in St. Louis for the next several decades, playing often with Singleton Palmer, but his career ended in 1969 after a stroke.

Family

One of Mason's sisters, May Ingraham (née Mary Naomi Mason; 1901–1982), married to Rufus Harcourt Ingraham, Sr. (1900–1967), was founder and president of the Bahamian Women's Suffrage Movement established in 1950 that led to changing Bahamian law in 1961 to allow women the vote, beginning 1962. In 2012, on the 50th Anniversary of the Granting of Universal Suffrage to Women in the Bahamas – the Bahamas Post Office issued commemorative panes of six postage stamps, each bearing a portrait of an influential woman exponent of female suffrage. Ingraham is one of the six.

Bibliography

Annotations
  1. The Dixie Stompers, on their 1956 debut album with Delmar (DL 504), was a Dixieland sextet composed of Bill Mason (cornet); Jim "Kid" Haislip (trombone); Norman Mason (clarinet); Glenn Tintera (né Glenn Joel Tintera; 1931–2013) (piano); Pete Patterson (né Joseph Patterson; 1895–1974) (banjo); and Bob Kornacher (né Robert Henry Kornacher; 1931–2013) (drums).
  2. Delmar Records, founded 1953 in Chicago by Bob Koester, was renamed Delmark around 1958. (Barnes, Harper. May 28, 1993. "A Man, A Life, A Label" . St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Vol. 115, no. 148. p. 4E. Retrieved January 21, 2021 – via Newspapers.com).
  3. Singleton Palmer's Dixieland Six was composed of Bill Martin (trumpet), Leon King (né Leon Bruce King; 1907–1996) (trombone); Norman Mason (clarinet); Gus Perryman (né Thomas Augustus Perryman; 1901–1993) (piano); Palmer (tuba and bass); and Lije (aka Lige) Shaw (de) (né Elijah William Shaw; 1900–1982) (drums).

General references
  1. Norman Mason at Allmusic

Notes
  1. Claghorn.
  2. Chilton.
  3. Kemp.
  4. Kennedy.
  5. Crowder & Niemoeller.
  6. Hobson.
  7. Goddard.
  8. Henderson.

Inline references
  • Chilton, John (1972) [1970]. "Mason, Norman". Who's Who of Jazz: Storyville to Swing Street (1st American ed.). Philadelphia: Chilton Book Company. p. 235. ISBN 0-8019-5705-2. LCCN 72-188159. OCLC 33999819.
  • Claghorn, Charles Eugene (1911–2005) (1982). Biographical Dictionary of Jazz. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall. p. 196. Retrieved January 15, 2021 – via Internet Archive. ISBN 0-13-077966-0. LCCN 82-10409. OCLC 769095671.
  • Crowder, Ed; Niemoeller, A. F. (né Adolph Frederick Niemoeller; 1903–1973) (February 1952). "Norman Mason: Riverboat Jazzman". The Record Changer. Changer Publications, Inc.: 8 & 19. Retrieved October 19, 2019 – via Internet Archive.
  • Goddard, Bob (April 7, 1957). "In Our Town". St. Louis Globe-Democrat (newspaper column). 82 (300). p. 12 G. Retrieved October 19, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  • Kemp, Larry (né Kenneth Lawrence Kemp; born 1949) (2018). "Norman Kellog Mason (November 25, 1895 – )". Early Jazz Trumpet Legends. Series: Jazz Trumpet Legends. Vol. 1 of 3. Pittsburgh: Rose Dog Books (self publishing firm). pp. 23–24. Retrieved January 15, 2021 – via Google Books (this source provides bibliography for Mason's date and place of birth). ISBN 1-4809-7637-7, 978-1-4809-7637-5, and 978-1-4809-7660-3 (e-book). OCLC 1059329912.
    1. Vol. 1: Early Jazz Trumpet Legends
    2. Vol. 2: Modern Jazz Trumpet Legends
    3. Vol. 3: Current Jazz Trumpet Legends
(Abstract: This chapter examines Armstrong's development as a musician during his time with Marable and his orchestra on the Streckfus riverboats. Joe Howard (trumpet), Norman Mason, and Davy Jones, all good readers and veterans of the minstrel shows, helped Armstrong with his studies. This chapter explores the changing dance tempos as jazz and the foxtrot replaced ragtime and the one-step). ISBN 9781496819772 and 9781496819826. doi:10.14325/mississippi/9781496819772.003.0010 (chapter). OCLC 8260487645 (chapter). OCLC 1053996701, 1120119955 (e-book).
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