Producer: Whitney ‘was optimistic’ on future

>>> music producer harvey mason was working with whitney houston on the recording studio just days before she died. mr. mason, good morning.

>> good morning.

>> there's a photograph of you just one week ago today working with whitney. she had just come out of the recording studio . you guys were working on the music for her upcoming movie "sparkle." describe that day.

>> the last day i worked with her was tuesday. we had done a couple sessions in the last two weeks. and it was a normal day. it was a session not unusual from any of the others we've done. she comes in pretty close to on time and warms up. goes into the booth and we start right to work on the vocal. she was in good spirits. i thought we had a really good session, productive. and, you know, just tough for me to watch some of the footage you were showing. first time i've really seen some of that stuff. i haven't really -- i made a point not to watch it. it's a little tough for me.

>> i'm sorry. i'm sorry that you're experiencing this all right now. as i understand it, she came out of that recording booth and she wanted to hear her singing. and you two talked about her future and she started dancing and you were laughing. describe that moment and what she said about her future.

>> she was very optimistic the last few times i was with her. she was looking forward to completing the movie. she was really excited about the soundtrack. and as you said, you know, she came out of the booth and said do we have everything that you need to make a great song? i said, yes. she said play it back. let's listen. turn it up. she wanted to dance. she wanted to just enjoy the moment. and that's going to be something i'm going to remember forever. it's really not uncommon for her to just have a great time, a great spirit. she is very passionate shech.t she works very hard. that's how all of our sessions were. she was fun loving and we had a great rapport.

>> you said that she worked very hard. she wanted to excel.

>> she did.

>> did she feel, do you think, pressure as a result of this? i mean trying to match the sort of brightness of the 1980s of her career, of her soaring voice then?

>> i didn't get the feeling that was a burden on her. i think like any artist other than artists doing their first record, they always feel pressure. i know she cared about her fans. she really wanted to give them something of great quality. we spoke a lot about that. she said, i have to make this better. i have to make this perfect. it's got to be great. she worked really hard to make sure that everything at least we did together in the last three years was of very high quality and something her fans would enjoy and appreciate.

>> how was her voice? how was her demeanor?

>> her demeanor was great. she was very positive. as i said, we had a lot of fun. we would go back and forth in the studio. sometimes we bicker. sometimes we laugh. but at the end of the day , she's always happy with the rument esult of the vocal. as far as her voice is concerned, like every singer, lz go there are good and bad days . it's not breaking news her voice doesn't sound exactly like did it when she was 19. the last couple weeks, the session we were doing, i was very positive and felt good about. i thought we were getting great material. we were both excited about what we were working on.

>> you saw no signs of anything wrong. harvey mason jr., i'm sorry for, again, for having you see this material on our air just before our interview. thank you so much again for talking to us.

>> my pleasure. thank you.

>> coming up, we're going to talk much more about the future, what the future holds tofor houston's daughter.

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