PHOTO | CARTER WADE

Charlotte native Sean Mason returns home to play "A Charlie Brown Christmas" with the Sean Mason Trio with four shows at Middle C Jazz starting Dec. 19.

Sean Mason always comes home for Christmas.

The Charlotte native returns for his annual “A Charlie Brown Christmas” by the Sean Mason Trio with four shows at Middle C Jazz in Uptown on Dec. 19 at 5:45 p.m. and 7:45 p.m. in addition to Dec. 20 at 5 p.m. and 7:15 p.m. The Dec. 19 performances will also be livestreamed.

Mason, a jazz pianist and composer and Philip O. Berry Academy of Technology alumnus, began performing the holiday show at age 16 at the former Tavern on Morehead Street, playing different venues around the city over the last six years. Each year’s performance is a little different with a vocalist and his trio performing holiday favorites.

“Each year I arrange them differently for the band, just to keep things fresh so we are not playing the same exact thing every year,” Mason said.

Mason considers 2020 the weirdest year of his life. He left Julliard in August after two years at UNC Greensboro. The pandemic and advice from his mentors influenced his difficult decision to leave the music academy, yet the last two years included in an introduction to film.

He played piano for all of Netflix’s adaptation of August Wilson’s “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” which debuts today. The film, set in Chicago in 1927, follows blues singer Rainey (Viola Davis) and her band. It is also the final role for actor Chadwick Boseman, who died from colon cancer on Aug. 28.

Mason worked alongside his mentor Branford Marsalis, the renowned saxophonist, composer and bandleader. It offered a hands-on educational experience for Mason, who equated the specific request of a director to make a scene sound happy or sad to essentially translating a language.

“Music is a language of its own, so what does that mean musically?” Mason asked. “To hear how Branford navigates in and out between these conversations between normal, regular people English terms and translating that into musical scores that are orchestrated for instruments, that was a huge learning process.

“This was Chadwick’s last movie before he passed. It was a very sad day when he passed, because he didn’t tell anybody. He looked frail, but we thought he was losing weight for the role. We didn’t know that he was just sick out of his mind. Yet to see the way Branford navigated through professional actors and different directors taught me a lot about myself and how I can do that in the future.”

Recording for the film took approximately a year and a half, with the final touches taking place during the pandemic.

“We did not know this pandemic was going to happen, but thank, God everything was recorded in February,” Mason said. “The only thing we had to do during the pandemic was retouches. Everybody had to get tested (for COVID-19) around three-four times we met, and all the safety precautions were taken.”

Mason’s journey as a pianist began when he was 13. His grandmother, Betty Cornwell, bought him a small keyboard and he taught himself how to play by ear. By age 15, Mason’s family invested in a piano and sent him to JazzArts Initiative (now JazzArts Charlotte) camps, where he learned under President and Artistic Director Lonnie and Ocie Davis. Lonnie Davis recalled a group exercise at the start of camp where they asked students about ear training exercises. Students had to identify different musical elements, such as a chord, by ear. Questions became increasingly more difficult, and Mason’s natural ability stood out.

“The earlier questions, all the kids were answering, but as it went on, there were fewer and fewer students that were answering, and at the very end, it was Sean,” Lonnie said. “He was the only one who was raising his hand, answering those questions. He was sitting way at the back, at the top of one of these lecture hall types of spaces. We were like, ‘who is this kid? He has an ear. We have to get to know this young man.’”

The Davises quickly learned that Mason was entirely self-taught and his favorite piano player was Ray Charles. Under their mentorship, Mason’s creativity thrived. Then at UNCG, he had the opportunity to connect with Marsalis.

“Branford came down to UNCG for a day, and he was giving lessons to all the saxophone students,” Mason said. “I was like, ‘Branford Marsalis is here. Let me ask if I can get five minutes at the end for piano.’ He let me in at the end, and he was like, ‘all right man, we’ve got five minutes.’ It was at the end of his day. He was tired.”

Marsalis was so impressed he took Mason’s contact information and sent the aspiring musician new things to learn.

“He was coming back the next month to get give saxophone lessons to the students for another day,” Mason said. “He sent me the hardest stuff I’ve ever had to work on, and I had a month to do it. Me being the person I am, I waited until the last few days to do it. This is how I work on things. From then, we developed a real good connection. Branford is a real good mentor of mine, and he takes me on the road and we do tours.”

On the Net:

https://www.seanmasonofficial.com/

https://middlecjazz.com/calendar/

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