ListN Up playlists are commissioned by American Composers Forum. Artists are selected by ACF staff (including I CARE IF YOU LISTEN and innova Recordings).
Based in New York City, Mason Bynes is a composer, vocalist, and multimedia artist who finds inspiration from gospel, R&B, rock, funk, and acoustic music. In addition to her work as an artist, she works as a career coach for emerging professionals and artists in the city. Her achievements include her latest commissions with The Kennedy Center, performing with The Boston Pops Holiday Singers, and her compositional score for Danielle Dean’s film “Hemel,” which was screened at the 62nd New York Film Festival and is now at the BFI London Film Festival.
Hi, my name is Mason Bynes and I’m a New York-based composer and vocalist. For me, music is that thread that quilts together all of my friends, and family, and places, things – revelations that I’ve had over my lifetime. The playlist that I curated for today is a reflection of all of those things and they’ve had a really strong impact, not only on what I write as a composer but just how I experience and give a soundtrack to my life today as a person.
I do care if you listen! But I mostly care that you might find some joy or at least some recognition in these songs. Thanks for listening.
“Aldeia De Ogum” by Joyce Moreno
I owe my friend Marion Powers for showing me this song and the incomparable Joyce Moreno. We were driving around Scituate, Massachusetts heading towards the beach with her family when she put on this album. The rhythms, vocal ad libs, and bright energy of this song have stayed with me ever since.
“The Best Is Yet to Come” by Donald Lawrence and The Tri-City Singers
On Saturday mornings in the early 2000s, my parents would put on a WOW GOSPEL CD while we cleaned and did house chores. I loooathed having to get up and do this as a child but at least we were bumpin! I grew up singing this song in my church back in Houston, Texas and I loved this era of gospel music. Its richness and colorful sound has a heavy influence on my music.
“You Can’t Hide From Yourself” by Teddy Pendergrass, Remixed and Performed by John Morales
Teddy Pendergrass was on the playlists for family functions. 70s/80s R&B and soul music from artists like him makes me proud to be Black, y’all! It makes me want to rock box braids with beads and twirl around a roller rink. Bass grooves, vocal hooks, stirring brass themes, and Teddy rocking the mic with affirmations: “Make peace with yourself before you can love another…Understand who and what you are before you can go any further.”
“Gimme All Your Love” by Brittany Howard, Performed by Alabama Shakes
Alabama Shakes’s album Sound & Color gave a space for my angst and my joy. There are no skips on this amazing body of music. Brittany Howard is a legendary artist and I am so inspired by how she commands an experimental blend of rock, R&B, and soul. Genre-bending is a technique that I enjoy bringing to my work. This song reminds me that there are many ways to peak the listener’s interest.
Scarborough Fair arranged by Simon Parkin, Performed by Sheku Kanneh-Mason and Plínio Fernandes
This arrangement of the English ballad made popular by Simon and Garfunkel is so ethereal. The beautiful exchange of textures and lyrical performance given by Sheku Kanneh-Mason and Plínio Fernandes is refreshing. I found this song when seeking inspiration for my own arrangement of songs by John Dowland for voice and electric guitar.
Requiem, Op. 9, IV. “Sanctus” by Maurice Duruflé, Performed by The Choir of King’s College, Cambridge and Stephen Cleobury
I’ll be a choir nerd forever. I’ll never forget singing Duruflé’s Requiem while in my undergraduate program at The University of North Texas. I enjoy music from French composers (both Maurice’s to be exact, lol) and when I want to write something stirring and epic, I think back on this work fondly.
Three Jamaican Dances: No. 2 by Oswald Russell, Performed by William Chapman Nyaho
My friend Joe Williams is a beautiful artist who claims his space as a “sound liberator” in the concert music scene. “Sound liberator” – what an amazing phrase. Joe introduced me to William at the African American Art Song Alliance Conference back in 2022. We were sitting together on a bus heading back to the hotel after a day filled with music written by us and for us. This song reminds me of William’s radiance.
“Songs For the People” by Mason Bynes, Performed by Shannon Cochran and Christina Lalog Seal
This piece was commissioned by NATS in 2020. I’m grateful for Tom Cipullo’s mentorship when composing this piece. I’m even more grateful for the joy I was able to find when writing this during the Black Lives Matter protests at the time. Frances Ellen Watkins Harper’s poetry is a balm: “Music to soothe all its sorrow, Till war and crime shall cease; And the hearts of men grown tender… Girdle the world with peace.”
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