Luba Mason Talks About Her New Album 'Triangle' and More on Backstage LIVE With Richard Ridge

BroadwayWorld's Richard Ridge is keeping up with all of your favorite stars' latest projects on Backstage Live, bringing you in-depth interviews twice weekly.

On Thursday, November 19, he chatted with star of Girl from the North Country, Luba Mason, who talked about her her new album, Triangle. She hosted a listening party for the album on November 20, which she also discussed.

"I'm overly thrilled, because I really did not know what the reaction was going to be to this album," she said. "I call it 'Triangle' because it's only three people. It's voice, vibrophone, and bass. I do bring in a percussionist for I think two or three of the songs."

Mason went on to say that she thinks this concept is very unique to music.

"It's a real minimalistic approach to music and it's never been done before. It's never been recorded before," she said. "So I thought 'well, maybe it's never been recorded before because people don't want to hear that.'"

But, she performed with the trio and received "very positive" reactions, which encouraged her to make the album. When the album received positive reactions as well, she had to figure out how to get people to hear it.

"Luckily we filmed this live performance I did of the recording, thinking I was going to be selling a DVD down the line," she said of the album, that was recorded in 2018. "So now I have this wonderful video of the live recording, in front of a live audience. So I went, 'oh, we could have a virtual, online streaming concert here.'"

Watch the full interview below!

Broadway and Recording Artist Luba Mason has just released her 4th solo album titled TRIANGLE, which is a wholly unique, vibrant, new line-up that some call unprecedented using just voice, vibraphone, and bass! This concert is the live capture of that recording session at Manhattan's renowned Power Station studio/Berklee NYC including the amazing Joe Locke on Vibes - (played w/Dianne Reeves, Grover Washington Jr.), the incredible James Genus on Bass - (plays in the SNL band, Herbie Hancock) and produced by longtime Prince collaborator, Renato Neto.

Luba Mason is a two-time Lucille Lortel and Drama Desk-nominated actress most recently seen in the critically-acclaimed 2020 B'way production of Bob Dylan/Conor McPherson show Girl From The North Country (shut down by the pandemic on March 12th), as well as 8 other B'way, shows including CHICAGO, JEKYLL & HYDE, THE CAPEMAN, and HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS...to name a few. Straddling two worlds, Luba has also worked and recorded with jazz greats Al Jarreau, Jimmy Haslip, Randy Brecker, Hubert Laws, and Dori Caymmi and performed in numerous International Jazz Festivals and at Jazz at Lincoln Center with Wynton Marsalis and her husband Ruben Blades.

TRIANGLE exemplifies the passion for fresh perspectives and unexpected choices that led Luba to trademark the "Mixtura" name. As a reviewer noted, "the material is jaw-droppingly diverse." Luba pulled the program from pop classics by the Beatles and Paul Simon to a Monk standard, a Slovak folk song, and a recent Broadway hit, and surely the first time that Brazilian legend Antonio Carlos Jobim and heavy metal band System of a Down have been represented in the same repertoire. Add to that the surprising instrumentation and we think you will agree we have a concert that is absolutely gorgeous in its unfamiliarity while remaining vividly engaging.

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