Karen Mason and Louis Rosen – “Ages Since the Last Time”
Karen Mason and Louis Rosen came up in Chicago together 50 years ago. Mason was a singing hostess at “class joint” Lawrence of Oregano. Her musical director, Brian Lasser, who passed in 1992, had gone to school with Rosen and connected them. She debuted two of Rosen’s songs. The Broadway and cabaret veteran is likely known to you.
Composer/songwriter Rosen has been, besides writing and recording, an immensely popular teacher at 92Y over 35 years-everything from theory and classical, to rock, pop, and musical theater. Both have released multiple albums.
Affection and respect are palpable. Rosen, who rarely performs, is in familiar territory playing and singing his own work. Though she’s presented some of her friend’s songs, Mason is unaccustomed to solo guitar accompaniment. (Her collaborator segues back and forth from piano to guitar.) She rises to the occasion with thoughtful, pristine vocals. Mason’s sound is bright, Rosen’s cottony.
“I Want to Live to Love You”- I sing for you/you sing for me…arrives with short chords and elongated lyrics (masculine and feminine?) Mason closes her eyes: I wanna hide in our unmade bed, she sings, savoring, envisioning, humming. Rosen is at the piano for a solo “Notre Dame is Burning”…arson from within…Flames consume the air/Heartbreak everywhere…which mourns a number of disasters. An anthem of helpless despair.
The duet “I Need You” has lyrics which Cole Porter and Larry Hart would appreciate: I need you like a seed needs the rain/Like pleasure needs pain; Like a well needs a spring/And a wish needs a well… With a twang and a grin the two performers play lyrical ping-pong. “Brian (Lasser) understood the word show in show business”, Rosen begins. “We have a belter here” – he nods to Mason. Lasser’s buoyant, sophisticated “Tear Up the Town” emerges like the powerful spritz of shaken, uncorked champagne. “Who else would change octaves on the last note,” Mason quips.
From Rosen’s first CD, ‘Southside Stories’, we hear Mason render “Troubled Children”: Ronnie and me at the back of a bus –her shoulder rises…daring and eager, but scared… Chasing our dreams, unprepared…Hands clasp each other around the microphone stand. It’s a story-song about missed opportunities made touching by aching melody and unnecessary death. The ballad “Morning Soul” emerges sighing and stretching – with gratitude: I built the wall/And you had the will to climb…Guitar and vocal are delicate.
“There are no second acts in American lives” (F. Scott Fitzgerald, who clearly met none of our politicians) introduces Rosen’s “My Third Act.” The protagonist approaches a young waitress, who responds, “You remind me of my dad, it might be fun,” to which he responds, “Call me ‘pops’, my third act has begun.” It’s droll and resigned, but not passive. “Gonna pack my pills, my back brace and my gun…” If not humor to get us through, then what?
Mason’s interpretation of “Chicago” (Fred Fisher 1922) accompanied by guitar sounds like the era in which it was birthed. Slow and mournful, it evokes black and white gangster films. Rosen’s “Dust to Dust Blues” arrives on its tail: I’ve been in the wilderness…I seek out the holiness…A rambling tune filled with smokestacks and slaughter houses perhaps seen from passing boxcars might easily have been written by by Woody Guthrie or Pete Seeger. Clarity of notes rather than strumming affects.
“Love and Ashes” from Rosen’s most recent CD finds the songwriter hunched over the piano: The beauty of life and the heartbreak of living are one…Mason sings evoking shadows, clothes discarded on the floor, a half bottle of MacCallan whiskey. The pair close with a duet of “Dinnertime at Jimmy’s” a Covid song of nostalgia for community.
Karen Mason and Louis Rosen at Chelsea Table and Stage
May 11 & 12 2024
152 West 26th Street
Karen Mason
Louis Rosen https://louisrosen.com/
My profile of Rosen
