Janette Mason

“ReWired”

(JM Music – JM2024CD)

Janette Mason – piano, keyboards, Tom Mason – bass, Eric Ford – drums
with guests Paul Booth – saxophones, Roderick Lewis Frazier, Brendan Reilly, Natalie Williams - vocals

“ReWired” is the fifth album release from the London based pianist, keyboard player, composer and arranger Janette Mason. It follows “Din and Tonic” (2005), “Alien Left Hand” (2009), “D’Ranged” (2014) and “Red Alert” (2017).  She has also collaborated with jazz vocalists Lea DeLaria and Vimala Rowe.

In addition to her work as a jazz artist Mason has worked extensively as a session and touring musician, performing with a host of big rock and pop names including Oasis, k.d.lang, Seal, Robert Wyatt and David McAlmont. She has worked as a musical director for television personalities Jonathan Ross and Antoine de Caunes.

Mason is the Artist in Residence at The Exchange Theatre, London and has also worked as a film composer having written the scores for the British dramas “Ruby Blue” (2008) and “The Calling” (2009).

In conjunction with James Alexander Thompson Mason has co-authored several piano instruction books, these published under the collective name Piano Hive.

The wide ranging nature of Mason’s musical activities seems to have resulted in her being less well appreciated by the jazz community than she deserves. The critical reaction to “ReWired” suggests that this might be about to change. It’s an album that brings her various musical worlds together in a programme of nine pieces that re-imagines a mix of jazz standards and classic rock and pop tunes and also includes one Mason original. 

Mason says of the project;
“I wanted to reflect on what I’ve done – including some standards, but twisting them as much as I can, alongside tunes I’ve played in a pop context with their creators. This album is a representation of the music I truly love. I’ve had the honour of working with so many incredible artists, but ReWired is my way of honouring my own creativity”.

In many ways “ReWired” is similar to fellow pianist John Law’s Re-Creations project, which also re-imagines and re-harmonises classic rock and pop tunes and places them into a jazz context. The end results sound very different to Law’s, but both projects are highly creative and richly satisfying.

Where Law works in a quartet setting featuring the saxophone of Sam Crockatt Mason favours the classic ‘piano trio’ format and in bassist Tom Mason and drummer Eric Ford (of Partikel fame) she has two distinctive and highly creative collaborators. Master saxophonist Paul Booth, another player with feet very much in the jazz and pop / rock camps, guests on selected pieces, while the trio of guest vocalists Roderick Lewis Frazier, Brendan Reilly and Natalie Williams make a distinctive contribution on Mason’s own composition “Prayer For The Planet”.

 

Things get underway with the core trio’s re-invention of the Gary Numan synth pop hit “Cars” as a convincing jazz instrumental, with Janette Mason taking the hooky melodic motif as the starting point for her piano improvisations. Tom Mason and Ford are highly creative co-drivers as this musical vehicle negotiates numerous twists and turns that involve several changes of pace and dynamics. Driving rhythms combine with more reflective moments, with Tom Mason’s bass feature seeing him briefly flourishing the bow.

Janette Mason has always had a particular affinity for the music of David Bowie. In 2021 she collaborated with the vocalists David McAlmont and Sam Obernik on the EP “Wall To Wall Bowie”, a recording that is still available via Mason’s Bandcamp page. She has also been a member of Holy Holy, the Bowie tribute band that features former Bowie producer Tony Visconti on bass,  ex Spiders drummer Woody Woodmansey, and Heaven 17’s Glenn Gregory on vocals.
Her choice here is “John, I’m Only Dancing”, a tune previously given a jazz twist by saxophonist Julian Siegel and his group Partisans. Whereas Siegel slowed the tune down and added a dash of blues Mason introduces Afro-Cuban rhythms and puts it through the same kind of dynamic variations as the opening “Cars”. Once again Tom Mason and Ford are very much equal partners with both bass and drums coming to the fore at various junctures during the course of a vivacious and highly intelligent and sophisticated arrangement. 

Mason’s own “Prayer For The Planet”  this call for environmental awareness presents a gentler side of the group and also introduces all four guest performers. Reflective and elegiac it features Booth’s beguiling sax melodies, Mason’s hymn like piano chording, Ford’s deft brushwork and the choral style wordless vocals of Frazier, Reilly and Williams in a lush arrangement that combines delicacy with a wide-screen magnificence.

The jazz standard “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered”, written by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, is given a classical style treatment. A rippling solo piano intro evolves into an intimate trio performance featuring subtle re-harmonisations and shifts in time signature. Tom Mason and Ford again play their parts, with Tom Mason contributing a melodic double bass solo. Janette Mason also features with a discernible piano solo and it’s interesting that this in itself is something of a rarity. Perhaps due to the choice of material the performances don’t follow the usual head-solos-head format of much jazz, with the trio adopting a far more interactive approach.

 

Being of a certain age I’m not particularly familiar with the Olivia Rodrigo song “Good 4 U”, a relatively contemporary pop hit. Mason, aided by Tom, Ford and Booth utilises its quiet / loud dynamics to create a convincing jazz arrangement that positively swings at times. Tom Mason’s bass sometimes takes the melodic lead, much as it used to do when he was a member of pianist Robert Mitchell’s 3io back in the day. Booth makes a particularly vital contribution, leading melodically and delivering a slow burning, increasingly powerful saxophone solo during the latter stages of the performance.

Mason and the trio take a thoughtful and sensitive approach to their adaptation of the Kate Bush song “The Man With The Child In his Eyes”. A delicate solo piano intro is followed by a measured trio performance that includes a substantial contribution from Tom Mason, both with and without the bow. His arco solo is a particularly notable feature in a superb arrangement that also includes the flowing piano lyricism of the leader and a superbly nuanced drumming performance from Ford.

 

“Eleanor Rigby” is a tune that has been visited by jazz artists on multiple occasions over the years but Mason still manages to bring something fresh to it. She adopts a harder grooving approach than is normal, with Tom Mason’s vigorously plucked bass sometimes assuming the lead. Janette’s vivacious pianism is well supported by Ford’s skittering, E.S.T. like drum grooves, but even now there are twists and turns with moments of reflection prior to the busy fade.

George Shearing is another Mason favourite and her arrangement of “Lullaby of Birdland” pays homage to what is perhaps his most famous composition. Mason treats the old favourite to a slowed down arrangement with a sensitive, almost reverential solo piano introduction. The second phase of the arrangement features the sounds of Tom Mason’s double bass and includes an extended pizzicato solo. Janette Mason’s piano explorations convey a certain kind of wistfulness and the arrangement is also characterised by Mason’s customary changes of pace and dynamics.

 

In conclusion the Noel Gallagher song “Don’t Look Back In Anger” was chosen to celebrate Mason’s days of touring with Oasis. Performed as a solo piano piece it is infused with subtle gospel flavourings and eschews the bombastic approach normally associated with the Oasis group.

 

“ReWired” represents a substantial triumph for Janette Mason as she breathes new jazz life into this well chosen selection of tunes. Her arrangements are intelligent, imaginative and sophisticated and in a particularly well calibrated trio she has two outstanding collaborators capable of doing justice to her ideas. In the hands of the trio all of these tunes, even the best known ones, sound fresh and exciting. Paul Booth also makes a huge contribution to the tracks on which he appears, while the three singers fulfil their role well on “Prayer For The Planet”.

The playing is superb throughout and is enhanced by a crystal clear production from Janette Mason and engineer Andrew Tulloch that brings out all the beauty, subtlety and nuance of the music.

“ReWired”, plus Mason’s other solo recordings,  is available here;
https://janettemason.bandcamp.com/

The trio of Janette Mason, Tom Mason and Eric Ford will be appearing at The Vortex Jazz Club, Dalston, London on 17th July 2025. Tickets here;
https://www.vortexjazz.co.uk/event/janette-mason-rewired-2/

 

 

 

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