Enjoy!
If you’d like to hear my jazz voice and guitar duo with Lisa Schultz, Lisa and Mason, you can find us on Facebook.
Jazz Composition
“Luck Has Nothing To Do With It” is a piece that I wrote for jazz/pop ensemble while I was at Berklee. The video is of the piece being performed by a 13-piece band at the Berklee Performance Center concert featuring select student compositions.
The following are from my concert at San Jose State University on November 22nd, 2011, featuring original music for a 10-piece jazz ensemble. Please refer to my YouTube Channel www.youtube.com/user/masonrazavi for personnel and instrumentation.
“A Bad Case of the Mondays” – A 16-bar blues
“Moonlit Message” – Ballad featuring nylon string guitar
“Mad Dance” – it’s a just a little nuts!
“Goodbye Porkpie Hat” – Contrabassoon feature – Composed by Charles Mingus, arranged by Mason Razavi
“Luck Has Nothing To Do With It” – for the 10-piece group
Solo Guitar
Lenny Breau was a little know guitarist, but those familiar with his work often say that he is the greatest guitarist ever. After reading the book “One Long Tune” and writing a research paper on Lenny Breau, I wrote this piece as an homage of sorts. The piece incorporates some of Lenny’s right hand harmonics technique, tremolo, etc within a jazz context, and is influenced by his solo work on the album “Swingin’ on a 7-String”.
A quick home recording, 2nd take in the AM…..pre-coffee and with a fake nail on!
Una Limsona Por El Amor De Dios – Augustín Barrios Mangoré
Torija – Federico Moreno Torroba
Rock/Blues/Jazz Demo Reel
Other musicians include Jenny Poppen (vocals) on all tracks, and Josh Kenning (rhythm guitar), Josh Inouye (bass), and Rob Cross (drums) on the full band selections.
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Orchestral Compositions
This piece for string orchestra was written in large part when I was in Cape Cod. While at Berklee, my band Black Betty and the Bad Habits won the RJL Memorial Battle of the Bands (look it up, they’re awesome). We got to stay on the Cape while cutting the album. Every time we went there, the picturesque New England countryside and quaint small towns provided me with a break from life in the Boston metro. After putting in 12-15 hour days in the studio, I came back to our cabin and worked on this.
This has 4 live string players, whom I conducted. Garritan Personal Orchestra was used to augment the sound to give the effect of a large string orchestra.
Escape to the Cape by masonrazavi
A piece for chamber orchestra written which I wrote and conducted in 2005.
Autumnal Theme by masonrazavi