Name Norman Mason | Role American musician | |
Norman Mason was an American jazz multi-instrumentalist and bandleader.
Mason grew up in the Bahamas and began playing trumpet at age eight, as did his brother Henry Mason. 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, and soon after led his own ensemble, the Carolina Melodists (though they had no actual connection to North or South Carolina). From 1927 to 1933 Mason returned to duty under Marable, and after leaving his employ Mason began playing clarinet in Chicago and St. Louis bands.
He lived in St. Louis for the next several decades, playing often with Singleton Palmer, but his career ended in 1969 after a stroke.