In DownBeat, writer Suzanne Lorge profiles Sean Mason's debut album The Southern Suite, framing it as a personal document of his upbringing in Charlotte, North Carolina, filtered through the years he's spent in New York since enrolling at Juilliard in 2018. Mason describes the record as an exploration of the tension between tradition and modernism, grounded in a belief that every strand of jazz shares a common thread: the blues, which he characterizes less as a sound than a mindset.
Lorge traces the mentorship that shaped Mason's development, from his undergraduate years at UNC Greensboro, where saxophonist Branford Marsalis first took notice of him, through Branford's introduction to his brother Wynton, who leads both Juilliard's jazz studies program and Jazz at Lincoln Center's Blue Engine Records. That lineage surfaces directly on the album in "Kid," a tribute to Branford's guidance built on the kind of simple, triad-rooted harmony Mason associates with pre-1940s New Orleans jazz.
The piece moves track by track through the album's emotional range: the pared-down, bluesy restraint of "Lavender," the grown-soul swing of "One United," and the deeply personal "Lullaby," written for Mason's grandmother and built around a melody he wanted the listener to breathe alongside. Lorge also highlights "SilkyM," named for Mason's childhood nickname, and "Closure," which Mason calls the album's most integrated track, blending jazz, gospel, and baroque polyphony into what he describes as its defining statement.
"Seduces the ear." — DownBeat
Lorge closes by connecting these individual threads back to Mason's quintet, Tony Glausi, Chris Lewis, Felix Moseholm, and Domo Branch, whose cohesion she credits for carrying the album's recurring idea of a "spirit of celebration" from the opening track through to its close.
ABOUT THE SOUTHERN SUITE ALBUM
The Southern Suite is Sean Mason's debut album as a leader, released October 27, 2023 on Blue Engine Records (BE-0043) and later brought into the Taylor Christian Records catalog in January 2026. Across eight original compositions, the album explores Mason's relationship to his North Carolina upbringing and the both/and philosophy he brings to jazz tradition and innovation alike. Recorded with a quintet featuring Tony Glausi on trumpet, Chris Lewis on tenor saxophone, Felix Moseholm on bass, and Domo Branch on drums, the album reached No. 13 on the JazzWeek chart and No. 4 on the NACC Jazz chart, with airplay on more than 310 stations internationally.
ABOUT DOWNBEAT
DownBeat is one of the longest-running and most respected publications in jazz journalism, founded in Chicago in 1934. Alongside its album and live reviews, the magazine is known for features such as its long-running Blindfold Test and its annual Readers Poll and Critics Poll, both of which have shaped critical discourse around jazz artistry for decades. DownBeat continues to cover jazz, blues, and improvised music worldwide across both print and digital editions.
RESOURCES
Official Website: seanmason.net
Stream the Album: Listen on Spotify
Original Source: Read the review on DownBeat
