(photo by Jim Barcus)
The renowned Kansas City jazz pianist and composer has been racking up credits and kudos as an inspired director of musicals
Desmond Mason, multi-instrumentalist/ composer/producer has long been known as one of KC’s finest jazz pianists, playing on numerous jazz stages and with various ensembles.
And since 2022 he’s been demonstrating his proficiency as both performer and director in multiple productions at Music Theater Heritage.
It was through contacts with MTH associate producer Linnaia McKenzie and drummer Bryan Alford that Mason was asked to join the ensemble for “Stevie: Signed, Sealed, Delivered” at MTH in 2022. MTH chief executive artistic director Tim Scott then nabbed Mason to music direct “Ain’t Misbehavin’” in 2023 and for 2024 productions in development.
“Desmond is a beautiful combination of master and student,” Scott said. “He’s a remarkable musician, but for ‘The Glass Menagerie’ he was also able to put literal melody and music to the words and descriptions I gave him for mood and tone. As a music director he is somewhat new to theater; however, what he was able to achieve sonically with ‘Porgy and Bess,’ authenticating the sound of that community with six instruments, is nothing short of astonishing. I’m so proud of him and so thankful to count him as an artistic collaborator.”
McKenzie has another list of his contributions: “Collaborating on dynamic set lists, coming up with creative, alternative endings to our favorite tunes to keep them fresh — his positivity and excitement about doing so is contagious and empowering.”
“Never in all of my years would I have thought that I’d be playing and/or music-directing musicals but here I am!” Mason said in a recent interview. Mason has also helped craft several of the MTH Ruby Room tribute performances, and in November/December, he served as music director of “Hip Hop Cinderella” for Black Repertory Theatre.
In addition, Mason has been teaching MTH summer camps. It’s a perfect fit, as he likes to “paint musical pictures about life’s experiences.”
And new avenues keep opening. “I’ve either auditioned or been asked to music direct other things elsewhere, too,” he said, “alongside my still continuing music production and composing pursuits.”
Many remember Mason for his time in Shades of Jade with fellow powerhouse musicians Josh Williams, Ryan Lee, Perry Holliday, Derek Greenwood and Dominique Sanders, among others, years ago. Or his work with flutist Amber Underwood. Or as music director at Good Samaritan Missionary Baptist Church. Or when he worked a full-time day job at Park University. Even with all that activity, he was never not composing — on the bus, on his coffee break, during rehearsals.
“I’ve been a professional musician since 2010, and a full-time musician, music producer, composer and engineer since 2015. Not only am I still here, I’m making a living using my gift,” he said.
Mason prizes all styles, genres, messages, rhythms: soul, hip-hop, the American Songbook, gospel, classical. “I continue to be inspired by life,” he said in an interview posted on the Johnson County Library website, “and the good and bad, or what rapper Lupe Fiasco calls the ‘Food’ and ‘Liquor’ that comes with it!”
Mason’s transformation hasn’t just been professional. Not so long ago he weighed more than 330 pounds but is now a fitness fanatic who plays basketball and baseball and loves lifting and running. He plans to run the Chicago marathon next October.
Mason’s success belies the obstacles of his upbringing. His family moved from LA to KC in 1996 when his grandmother was diagnosed with cancer. He saw his father only one day in his entire life. His mother pawned his violin while he was in middle school for drug money. From age 15 he and his brother basically raised themselves; their family services caseworker called them “miracles” for avoiding death and/or jail, fates common to children in such conditions.
“I first wanted to do music due to my grandmother renting me a violin and the talented musicians at Palestine Missionary Baptist Church when I was a child,” Mason related in the JoCo Library interview. His dream was to play the B3 organ after hearing it at the church, and he began studying piano as a prerequisite thanks to the support of Dr. Nelson Johnson and his wife Anne, who paid for Mason to take piano training at UMKC. There he met Joe Cartwright and Bobby Watson, who both became solid Mason fans.
Mason found his direction when he encountered the work of Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner, Bill Evans, Casey Benjamin and Robert Glasper. He was impressed by the way Benjamin and Glasper were able to establish moods and a rapport with their audiences through their music and cites those as “two things I strive for today.”
But his reach stretches further. As his MTH colleague McKenzie sums up his achievement: “Every now and then, people are sent into your life to make you a better artist by sparking your creativity, collaborating with you on brilliant ideas and inspiring you to be the best version of yourself. Since (I met him) ten years ago, Desmond Mason has been that.”