Harvey Mason

Born in Atlantic City, New Jersey on February 22, 1947, Harvey Mason is a jazz drummer and producer. Mason is best-known as the drummer for jazz supergroup Fourplay. He began his career after graduating from the New England Conservatory. In his early 20s, he spent time playing with Erroll Garner before drumming with George Shearing from 1970 to ’71. Mason then moved to Los Angeles where he became an in-demand studio musician. While he worked with a variety of artists from different genres, he soon worked his way into the jazz community. Throughout the rest of the 1970s and into the ‘80s, he played with such jazz greats as Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters, Gerry Mulligan, Freddie Hubbard, Grover Washington, George Benson (on his hit “This Masquerade”), Lee Ritenour, Bob James, and many others. In 1991, Mason was a founding member of Fourplay, a jazz supergroup that also featured Bob James, Lee Ritenour, and Nathan East. During the course of their career, Fourplay released 13 albums and received two Grammy Award nominations including one for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album (for 2007’s X). Throughout his busy career, he also found time to record a series of his own albums including Marching in the Street (1975), Funk in a Mason Jar (1977), M.V.P. (1981), Ratamacue (1996), and Chameleon (2006). His son, Harvey Mason, Jr., has made quite a name for himself in the music community as a producer and songwriter.