ABOUT

The work of Mason Windley is filled with faith, conviction and great passion. He grew up in a music-filled, God-fearing household in Hampton Roads, VA with many family members who were practitioners of the arts before his interest even began to spark. He really started taking his musical studies seriously at the age of sixteen, where his mindset post-pandemic was set on self-growth and devotion to the art of orchestral and thematic composition.

His voice as a musician and live instrumentalist is expressed through the alto saxophone and the flute, proudly echoing the lineage of Black American Music. His music stays true to this, with his melodies evoking the blues, gospel and bebop over freshly modern harmony and grooves. Windley is inspired by modern artists such as Braxton Cook, Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah and Marquis Hill as well as the more classic voices of Kenny Garrett, Cannonball Adderley and John Coltrane.

Driven to promote consciousness, justice and moral clarity in his artistry and the world, he currently curates and scores the interviews of passionate and prominent leaders of the Black community from 1950 to the present day. The musical landscape aims to blend romantic orchestration with sounds from the Diasporic music tradition; so far he has scored lectures and interviews of Maya Angelou, Angela Davis, and Kwame Ture (formerly Stokely Carmichael).

He is currently pursuing a Film and Media Scoring degree at the Berklee College of Music while working extracurricularly with both his peers and more experienced colleagues as a composer, arranger and live and recording instrumentalist. His concert as a part of the Sound Soil Stwrds concert series was described by co-founder, pianist and composer Domas Žeromskas as a “touching musical narrative, skillfully delivered by his youthful, sweeping collective.”