By Cameron Lee
July 16, 2024
When jazz pianist and composer Sean Mason is not in his Lower East Side abode or trekking across the world playing gigs, he’s at home in Charlotte. For the Phillip O’ Berry Academy of Technology grad, home is not only where he replenishes and rejuvenates, it’s the inspiration for his debut album, The Southern Suite.
“I wanted to make sure I wrote a suite of music that honored the diversity of musical influences that I grew up with,” said Mason. “I think Charlotte is a very special and underrated musical city. With jazz, gospel for sure.”
Mason’s debut album as a bandleader was released last year through Blue Engine Records, the in-house label for the renowned Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York. The Southern Suite intertwines sounds of early ‘20s American jazz while also paying homage to gospel, blues, and classical music.
“I grew up in a home, and also in a community, where a diversity of musical styles were appreciated and encouraged. I’m very grateful for that,” said Mason. “And that led me to compose eight tunes that really weave between those influences, from classical to jazz, 1920s to modern jazz, to R&B, to church music, all of those different influences.”
The Charlotte that Mason grew up in wasn’t necessarily conducive for aspiring jazz musicians, especially in the late 2000s and early 2010s. But several key members in the community helped propel Mason’s natural talents. He found a way to esteemed musician and bandleader Branford Marsalis at UNC Greensboro, where he attended college. Marsalis was an artist-in-residence at North Carolina Central University at the time, and Mason (with the help of his professor Chad Eby) convinced Marsalis to give him 10 minutes for a lesson, even though Mason was a pianist and Marsalis a saxophonist.
“Meeting Branford Marsalis at UNCG was a pivot point, and it instilled confidence as well, because he took me on the road with him, and he’s been my mentor until this day,” he said.
Mason was accepted into Juilliard based on the recommendation of Marsalis, where his brother (Wynton) is the Jazz Director. He performed with both Branford and Wynton along with countless other lauded musicians in his early 20s, and even played piano on the soundtrack to Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, which Marsalis (Branford) scored.
After dabbling with trombone, violin and drums at a young age, Mason started playing piano by ear at the age of 13, picking up songs he would hear on the radio.
“Eventually, I had to kind of catch up and learn music theory and technique. But in the beginning, it was just me playing music for fun,” Mason said.
In the summer between his eighth and ninth grade years, his mom stumbled on an ad for JazzArts Initiative (now JazzArts Charlotte), an upstart music academy in the city at the time. The experience not only gave him the technical training and mentorship he needed to further develop his innate abilities, but broadened his social circles.
“I grew up in Charlotte, pretty much exclusively around Black people. You know, I didn’t even experience what it was like to talk to a white person, until JazzArts Charlotte…it was a real culture shock for me to go to UNCG and Juilliard as well,” Mason said.
He was able to perform at Blumenthal Arts venues throughout his time in the JazzArts program, and co-mingle with fellow musicians and several prominent figures in the arts and music community, putting him in some unfamiliar situations.
“I didn’t have a suit, and all of a sudden, now I’m in a suit, you know. People are laughing at me because this is not something you do in high school, at least in the culture that I grew up in. I’m glad I had to unlearn that.”
Mason has a deep sense of appreciation for his upbringing in Charlotte and those that helped steer him in the right direction. The Southern Suite is in many ways an ode to his musical heritage, and the people that helped cultivate his immense talent like Lonnie and Ocie Davis, founders of JazzArts Charlotte.
“It definitely connected me with music in a formal way of learning that I wouldn’t have gotten anywhere else. And so without that organization, I’m not sure what would have happened because it’s all hypothetical,” said Mason. “I’m very grateful to Lonnie and Ocie for starting that, and making sure the people that go through it are educated in the right way.”
His latest project, Chrome Alley, a collaboration with renowned poet Mahogany L. Browne, is a musical essay on the Black experience in America, inspired by Browne’s critically acclaimed poetry anthology of the same name. The process for Mason, offered a new challenge, taking the subject matter and reconfiguring into a cohesive musical experience.
“I tried to capture the initial impulse of the emotion that I felt once I read the poem(s)…to say the unsaid which is what music does, and put that into the sonic landscape,” Mason told ABC News’ Linsey Davis in an interview.
Mason has also worked with acclaimed jazz vocalist Catherine Russell, and the duo are scheduled to release a joint album, My Ideal, in August. The album delves more into early American jazz influences, paying tribute to pioneers like James P. Johnson and Fats Waller, to more recent popular icons like Ray Charles.
To say that Mason is an old soul, might be presumptive. While remarkably shrewd at 26 years old, he’s been groomed under one of the preeminent American jazz families in a time-honored genre. An avid reader, who is perpetually looking to elevate his craft as a musician and broaden his mind, Mason is an example of how a prodigious talent can be molded by his community.
You can follow Sean Mason on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. Listen to Mason’s debut album, The Southern Suite, released through Blue Engine Records.
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