Musician John-Alex Mason dies after surgery

The region’s music community was dealt a blow Wednesday when blues musician John-Alex Mason died at the age of 35.

“You know, this really shouldn’t have happened,” said friend Jeff Bieri, who is program director at KRCC. “I mean, it was supposed to be an outpatient procedure.”

Mason was with his family when he died from complications after a surgery to remove cancerous tissue, said Karen Huff, a close family friend. Funeral and local memorial plans are pending.

He made his name as early as 2001, when he won the Telluride Acoustic Blues Competition. He cut records, appeared in music festivals all over the country and this year, won the Pikes Peak Arts Council award for best solo/duo musician in pop music. His fierce talent also propelled him play with blues greats, including B.B. King, John Mayall and John Hammond.

“Maybe his mama bathed him in muddy water from the Mississippi when he was a baby,” wrote former Gazette music writer Bill Reed in 2008. “Or maybe he did a soul switcheroo with an old, black, Southern bluesman who died at the instant he was born. Whatever the cause, John-Alex Mason is a blue-eyed, blond-haired Colorado Springs boy who has the blues — the low-down, mournful moaning, Mississippi Delta juke joint, I-done-been-at-the-crossroads kind of blues.”

Mason was widely admired for his downhome innovation: He sometimes played a guitar made out of a cigar box and wailed on the drum and guitar simultaneously.

“He was never too keen to keep the norm, you know,” said Betsie Brown, his former publicist and owner of Memphis-based Blind Raccoon records. “He was very adventurous, energetic, vivacious and kind — the sort of person that when this happens, it doesn’t make any sense at all.”

Bluesman Grant Sabin met Mason seven years ago, when Sabin was 13.

“He really had a discerning eye for people who got what he got and understood music the way he did,” said Sabin, who called Mason a mentor. “I think he had a pretty strong impact on the people, on my generation, that way. He definitely had a huge, huge impact.”

MeadowGrass director Stephen Harris remembers Mason’s festival performance in 2009, MeadowGrass’ inaugural year.

“I’ll never forget it. We didn’t have the big tent back then,” said Harris, who is also host of KRCC’s “Grass Roots Revival.” “It rained — pretty much throughout his whole set. And we probably shouldn’t have even let him perform with all the rain and the equipment. But it didn’t faze him at all. He just kept with a blazing blues.”

Mason is survived by his wife Rosanne, daughter Ruth, mother Charlotte and brother Stephen.