WNYC aired NPR host Ayesha Rascoe's conversation with Sean Mason about The Southern Suite, a nine-minute interview that later returned to NPR's national broadcast in December as part of a holiday-season rebroadcast. Mason opens by tracing his earliest connection to music back to his grandmother dancing around the house to Ray Charles and Duke Ellington records, long before he committed to piano at 13 and went on to study at UNC and Juilliard.
The conversation moves through the ideas that anchor the album: Mason's description of it as a candid celebration of life that holds both pleasure and suffering, his sense that each instrument should feel like a living voice in dialogue with the others, and the polyphonic New Orleans street-parade tradition that shapes his writing. He also speaks to the personal weight behind "Lullaby," written in the wake of his grandmother's passing, and closes by connecting his respect for jazz's lineage, from Charlie Parker to Bach, to "Closure," which he frames as a stand for human expression at a moment he feels it's under real pressure.
ABOUT WNYC
WNYC is New York Public Radio's flagship station, broadcasting from New York City on 93.9 FM and AM 820 and streaming online as an NPR member station. Alongside its own local programming, WNYC carries and helps produce national NPR content, including interviews like this one with Mason.
ALSO AVAILABLE
The Southern Suite is available on vinyl, CD, and sheet music, with a student discount for enrolled learners. For updates, subscribe to Sean's mailing list.
FOLLOW SEAN MASON
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RESOURCES
Official Website: seanmason.net
Stream the Album: Listen on Spotify
Original Source: Listen on WNYC
