Ahead of her live performance at Lighthouse, Poole on Friday 28 March, Emily Masser talks about her friendship with Alex Clarke, her new album, her family inspiration…
UK Jazz News: I note you went to Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester. How old were you when you started there?
Emily Masser: It was just before I turned 11 and I started as a classical saxophone player, but thought/knew I always wanted to be an opera singer. It was only when I was about 15 that I started really liking the saxophone, but somehow didn’t end up going into classical saxophone or opera singing!
UKJN: You moved on to the Guildhall School of Music & Drama….
EM: Yes I was still doing classical saxophone but that only lasted about 3 weeks. I felt I’d covered all the fun repertoire for classical saxophone! I was seeing loads of people in my year doing jam sessions and it seemed way more fun. I got to know some of the students on the jazz course and felt immediately at home, so I made the switch.
UKJN: I see you do still do some gigs in other bands on sax?
EM: I am still doing a little bit of classical sax in one or two quartets and in fact I’m going to be ‘depping’ on some gigs with the Paul Barry Big Band alongside my dad (established saxophonist Dean Masser) in the horn section.
UKJN: How much longer until you graduate at the Guildhall?
EM: Two more years.
UKJN: Once you graduate, do you think you will continue your academic studies further?
EM: I’m already in my tenth year of music education and I think I’m on a bit of a roll, so I have been thinking I might pull my finger out on the saxophone and apply to do a Masters.
UKJN: So how long have you known Alex and who played first in Clark Tracey’s band, you or Alex?
EM: Alex and I first met when I was about 11. Alex had been studying with my dad. We didn’t meet again until I was about 18. Clark was the drummer in her quartet and he approached me on social media and asked if I’d be interested in joining a quintet with Alex. That’s how Alex and I came together and I would say she is now my ‘partner in crime’! It’s so nice to have another girl on the scene who’s a similar age. She literally is my best friend, musically and socially.
UKJN: So you’re going to hit Dorset twice in the next few months (the Alex Clarke / Emily Masser Quintet will play Swanage Jazz Festival on Sunday 13 July)!
EM: Yes I’m looking forward to it – I hear it’s a nice place.
UKJN: I read you’ve only more recently listened to Ella Fitzgerald. Listening to your music, some might assume she was a major influence on your singing, but apparently not in your earlier days?
EM: I actually don’t think I sound like Ella at all (unfortunately!) In fact after my first few gigs I was listening back to recordings and didn’t know who it was. I still thought of myself as a classical saxophone player. What did happen however was at the next few gigs people kept mentioning that I had similarities to Annie Ross (I’d never heard of her!) it was only when a ‘Jazzwise’ article said the same thing that I decided to check her out. I instantly fell in love with the light-hearted sound and she wrote witty/silly vocalese too. Annie didn’t scat too much, so I suppose that’s when I turned to Ella Fitzgerald and Betty Carter (my other singing heroes).
UKJN: Is your immersion in swing, bebop, etc, perhaps a result of your education, of your family influence, of your personal musical taste, or maybe a combination of all three?
EM: I never sat and listened to jazz when I was growing up, although with my dad, there was always jazz on in the house. It was only really in my second term in my first year at the Guildhall that I started getting into it all. My listening instantly changed from classical saxophone to constant jazz, so I suppose it’s a combination of all of those.
UKJN: Leading on from that, tell me who your major influences are now?
EM: Definitely Annie Ross, and Sonny Stitt, I’ve been spending most evenings listening to CDs, so I’ve been working my way through Criss Cross records. I’m trying to check out people on the current scene too – I definitely respect the Head of Jazz at the Guildhall (SoundCellar performer in 2023, Jo Lawry) both musically and personally. She’s exactly what the UK jazz education scene needs. Through listening to Jo I started checking out her husband saxophonist Will Vinson and that’s what got me onto the Criss Cross records too.
UKJN: Have your influences changed since being on the course?
EM: Absolutely – 90% of my listening when I joined were horn players, but now it’s sort of 80% singers.
UKJN: Who are your main mentors / teachers that you maybe haven’t yet named?
EM: Brigitte Beraha at the Guildhall is someone who I’d want to acknowledge, but again Jo Lawry has started teaching me this year. It’s like I’ve fallen in love with music all over again this year!
UKJN: Let’s talk about your album – give us some of the background around it.
EM: It was such a lovely project and quite a fast turnaround. My dad and I were chatting in the kitchen one day and dad said he was thinking of maybe doing some recording. I also said I was starting to consider doing my own first album and we just instantly said ‘let’s do an album together’! We both ended up not sleeping, staying up all night working out which tunes to cover, who was going to be in the band, etc. The next day I went to watch Scott Hamilton and I very nervously asked Scott’s drummer Steve Brown if he’d be on it. He immediately said ‘yes’ and I was so excited. After that we booked some days in the studio.
UKJN: Tell me in particular about the track ‘Song For My Mother’.
EM: It’s a very family-oriented album with my dad playing on it and with my mum passing away when I was seventeen, a lot of the album includes standards that she knew and loved. We sang the song ‘I’ll Be Seeing You’ at her funeral, so the album can be a tough listen for me, but making the album brought me closer to both my mum and dad. We decided to write a song about my mum, ‘Song For My Mother’, and we managed to keep a similar feel to the Horace Silver track ‘Song For My Father’. It was a really special day for us doing the recording. Most of the songs were my mum’s favourites, but I also threw in ‘Take A Little Time To Smile’ which she probably didn’t know, but it reminded me of her because she was always smiling.
UKJN: Your vocalese and scat singing are perhaps a bit of a ‘USP’ so far, but you achieve significant emotional depth on some of the lyrics you interpret. Where do you see your future direction heading?
EM: I perhaps introduced the vocalese and scat when I was younger because I had difficulty in seeing how an audience might accept an 18-year-old singing about love all the time, so I started doing the vocalese to put a young witty spin on things. Now I’m a bit older I really want to work on the art of singing and be able to interpret the words in ballads and emotionally charged songs. I will keep the vocalese and scat going, but I do want to develop the interpretation of song lyrics and maybe even introduce the saxophone (but not when Alex Clarke is on them, because she’ll show me up!).
UKJN: That leads me nicely to my next question – will you be picking up the sax alongside Alex at the Lighthouse gig on 28 March?
EM: We often get asked this question but no not for now, though possibly sometime in the future. I will probably use it more in my own quartet when there isn’t another frontline player, but for now it’s quite nice being the singer and having a sax player, without me having to do it!
UKJN: As a young female artist in the music world, do you find there is still a long way to go in terms of being treated equally, both in terms of your gender and your age?
EM: We’ve definitely moved in the right direction with some amazing women doing great things. Again, having Jo Lawry as Head of Jazz at one of the major London music colleges, is a major step forward. There are still issues out there, but as in all walks of life, there are an awful lot of great guys and gals on the scene, so you just have to take note of who the good ‘uns are and who are the bad ‘uns! I’ve not experienced any issues on this tour, not even promoters speaking to my dad instead of me when I’ve played with him. Once I’m on the bandstand I don’t take note of the genders on the stage, it’s all just about the music.
UKJN: Is there anything else that you’d like to tell readers about?
EM: Yes! It will hold me accountable if I say a few things!
(i) Alex and I will be recording an EP together towards the end of this year, for a 2026 release.
(ii) I might do some competitions this year, though not sure.
(iii) I’ve taken on the task of being the promoter at Wakefield Jazz.
So lots of exciting things in the pipeline! Oh and I should probably write my dissertation!
