Draft:Chrome Valley
Where to get help
How to improve a draft
You can also browse Wikipedia:Featured articles and Wikipedia:Good articles to find examples of Wikipedia's best writing on topics similar to your proposed article. Improving your odds of a speedy review To improve your odds of a faster review, tag your draft with relevant WikiProject tags using the button below. This will let reviewers know a new draft has been submitted in their area of interest. For instance, if you wrote about a female astronomer, you would want to add the Biography, Astronomy, and Women scientists tags. Editor resources
|  |
This draft is not adequately supported by reliable sources. Wikipedia's verifiability policy requires that all content be supported by reliable sources.
This draft reads like an advertisement. Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, not a platform for promotion or marketing. Drafts that are exclusively promotional may be deleted without notice.
Declined by Qcne 7 days ago.Wikipedia articles must be written neutrally in a formal, impersonal, and dispassionate way. They should not read like a blog post, advertisement, or fan page. Rewrite the draft to remove:
Instead, only summarize in your own words a range of independent, reliable, published sources that discuss the subject. If you have a conflict of interest (e.g. you are the subject, an employee, or a relative) or are being paid to edit, you must disclose this to comply with Wikipedia's Terms of Use. | |
This draft appears to contain text generated by a large language model (such as ChatGPT). You cannot use LLMs to generate article content.
Declined by Sulfurboy 18 days ago.LLM-generated pages with certain obvious signs of being machine generated may be deleted without notice. Instead, only summarize in your own words a range of independent, reliable, published sources that discuss the subject. See the advice page on large language models for more information. | |
This draft is not adequately supported by reliable sources. Wikipedia's verifiability policy requires that all content be supported by reliable sources.
Declined by Bonadea 25 days ago.
| |
Submission declined on 4 July 2026 by Theroadislong (talk). This draft's references do not show that the subject meets Wikipedia's criteria for inclusion. The draft requires multiple published secondary sources that:
Declined by Theroadislong 58 days ago.
| |
Comment: You're going to need to massively condense this down. You can likely cut 60% of the content. A Wikipedia article *only* summarises what reliable, secondary sources state about a topic. qcne (talk) 10:41, 24 August 2026 (UTC)
- Comment: No sources for most of the information.Please remember to look at the draft after revising and before resubmitting it. The reference section is full of ref errors. bonadea contributions talk 08:46, 6 August 2026 (UTC)
- Comment: and we don't use external links in the body of an article. Theroadislong (talk) 12:31, 4 July 2026 (UTC)
- Comment: In accordance with the Wikimedia Foundation's Terms of Use, I disclose that I have been paid by my employer for my contributions to this article. Stevieee28 (talk) 11:52, 1 July 2026 (UTC)
| Chrome Valley | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
.jpg) Chrome Valley, debut release on The Soapbox Presents | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | April 19, 2024 | |||
| Recorded | June 26–27, 2023 | |||
| Studios | Sear Sound, New York, NY | |||
| Genres | ||||
| Length | 38:23 | |||
| Label | The Soapbox Presents | |||
| Producer | Sean Mason | |||
| Sean Mason collaborative albums chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Singles from Chrome Valley | ||||
| ||||
Chrome Valley is the debut collaborative studio album by American writer, playwright, and Lincoln Center's inaugural poet-in-residence Mahogany L. Browne and jazz pianist, composer, and producer Sean Mason. It was released on April 19, 2024, through The Soapbox Presents, the project-based, community-centered Harlem record label founded by Marija Abney, who also served as the album's executive producer. Chrome Valley marks the label's debut release and the first collaboration between Browne and Mason.[1][2]
Billed by the pair as "a genre-traversing album and music essay on the Black experience in America," the record sets ten of Browne's poems drawn from her critically acclaimed poetry collection of the same name to original music, alternating between Browne's spoken-word recitations and fully composed songs.[1] The album moves across jazz, spoken word, R&B, and gospel idioms while remaining rooted in the blues, and features an ensemble of bassist Russell Hall, drummer Domo Branch, vocalists Ekep Nkwelle and Jillian Grace, tenor saxophonist Stacy Dillard, trumpeter Anthony Hervey, and vibraphonist Joel Ross.[2]
Chrome Valley received national broadcast coverage, including a segment on ABC News Live's All Access with Linsey Davis and a feature on NPR's All Of It with Alison Stewart.[3][4] Critics also praised Browne's companion poetry collection: Vogue featured it among its poetry recommendations, and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette profiled Browne under the headline "Mahogany L. Browne uplifts and makes space for Black women's voices."[5]
Background and development
[edit]The collaboration began when Browne witnessed Mason playing a low-down blues on a detuned piano.[1] Some months later, during her tenure as Lincoln Center's inaugural poet-in-residence, Browne commissioned Mason to write for a live music performance incorporating dancers, projected imagery, and an all-star cast of jazz musicians. The evening was produced by The Soapbox Presents, the Harlem-based performing-arts organization founded by Marija Abney, where Mason served as artistic director.[1]
Browne sent Mason the Chrome Valley manuscript and told him to choose whichever poems spoke to him. "I read it front to back and picked 10 poems that spoke to me most, and that had potential to be lyricized and repurposed for composition," Mason has said.[6] The resulting stage program paired five new songs with five of Browne's spoken-word performances. Following the piece's rapturous reception at Lincoln Center, Browne and Mason decided the material needed to live beyond that one performance. Mason spent the following months further developing the songs, and the duo, supported by their ensemble, recorded the album at Sear Sound in New York over June 26–27, 2023, with Todd Whitelock as recording and mixing engineer.[2][1]
Rather than underscoring Browne's recitations on every track, Mason alternated her spoken-word pieces with fully arranged songs built from her lyrics. "My task was to honor every word Mahogany wrote, ensuring each word was sung," Mason has said. "The composition process felt like assembling a musical puzzle, reorganizing words into lyrics and song forms without knowing the final picture."[6] Browne, in turn, gave Mason latitude to repurpose, edit, and condense her verse: "She trusted me with her words and gave me artistic freedom, and the pieces seemed to write themselves," he said. Browne has described her hope for the album's reception simply: "I want people to get FREE."[6]
Composition
[edit]Chrome Valley comprises ten tracks that alternate between Browne's spoken-word recitations and fully composed songs, moving across blues, gospel, R&B, and jazz textures as they trace episodes of racism, love, gentrification, policing, parental fear, and self-affirmation.[6]
"Homer, Louisiana (Prelude)," the opening track, is a piano-and-spoken-word duet that sets the album's somber, resolute mood, with Browne's recitation buoyed by a flowing, rubato piano line from Mason. Browne has called the poem her "origin story," reflecting on memory and the inherited experience of racism in the American South.[6]
"Redbone Dances," featuring Ekep Nkwelle's vocals, is a blues-inspired portrait of a young woman's awakening to romance and desire, moving from gospel and 1990s R&B textures into a hip-hop-tinged groove, capped by a solo from tenor saxophonist Stacy Dillard.[6]
"The Blk(est) Night 1993" is a brief interlude pairing Browne's recitation with Dillard's tenor saxophone over a Mason theme. The poem is an ekphrastic response to a photograph taken of Browne during her junior year of high school, and nods to James Weldon Johnson's poem "The Creation."[6]
"Best Time III" opens on a tick-tock figure from Mason and bassist Russell Hall before Nkwelle's and Jillian Grace's vocals give way to Anthony Hervey's plunger-muted trumpet on a late-night, minor-key theme.[6]
"Kerosene Litany," introduced by Hervey's Harmon-muted trumpet, is Browne's portrait of a neglected neighborhood, framed by the poet against June Jordan's writing on police brutality and Audre Lorde's writing on the oppression of women, and touching on gentrification, food deserts, and the American healthcare system.[6]
"Trivia" sets pointed questions about violence against Black Americans ("What is luck to a Black body?") to a deliberately catchy, sing-song melody over a groove Mason has likened to Ahmad Jamal's "Poinciana," an approach he has called "sonic irony," pairing serious subject matter with a light musical backdrop. The track closes with a rubato passage capped by drummer Domo Branch's polyrhythmic burst.[6]
"Working Title," a feature for Grace, is the album's most topical track, built around cautionary advice and anxieties passed down to Black children, keyed on a Hall bass solo and thickening into the album's most volatile passage before subsiding into the repeated phrase "It ain't got no name."[6]
"A Chorus of Hands," set to Joel Ross's vibraphone, is Browne's account of seeking male approval while reckoning with an abusive father, weighing the line between protection and harm.[6]
"If We Praise (We Are Beautiful)," the album's lead single, is an invocation that Grace and Nkwelle turn into a soaring celebration, lifted by Branch's Afro-Cuban beat and a montuno piano figure. Mason built the song around a single line near the end of Browne's poem, "we are beautiful," which he made the overarching theme of both the song and the album.[7]
"Crowned" closes the record as a regal processional, with Nkwelle's and Grace's affirming background vocals underscoring Browne's reflection on self-respect and self-coronation, inspired by lessons in "regality" passed down through her family.[6]
Singles
[edit]"If We Praise (We Are Beautiful)" was released as the album's first single on February 23, 2024, ahead of the full album.[7] "Crowned" was released as the album's second single on March 22, 2024.[2]
Reviews and recognition
[edit]Chrome Valley received national media coverage on release. Browne and Mason appeared on ABC News' All Access with Linsey Davis on May 20, 2024, to discuss the album, and the album was featured in the May 21, 2024, episode of NPR's All Of It with Alison Stewart.[3][4]
Coverage also highlighted Browne's companion poetry collection: Vogue praised it, and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette wrote that Browne "uplifts and makes space for Black women's voices."[5] Sean Mason's broader body of work has separately drawn acclaim from outlets including Jazziz and WKCR; see his artist biography below.[8][9]
Personnel
[edit]Credits adapted from the album's official label copy.[2]
- Musicians
- Mahogany L. Browne – Spoken Word
- Sean Mason – Piano
- Russell Hall – Bass
- Domo Branch – Drums
- Ekep Nkwelle – Vocals (Tracks 2, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10)
- Jillian Grace – Vocals (Tracks 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10)
- Stacy Dillard – Tenor Saxophone (Tracks 2, 3)
- Anthony Hervey – Trumpet (Tracks 4, 5)
- Joel Ross – Vibraphone (Tracks 6, 8)
- Technical
- Sean Mason – Producer
- Marija Abney – Executive Producer
- Todd Whitelock – Recording & Mixing Engineer
- Steven Sacco – ProTools Engineer
- Christopher Gold – Digital Editing Engineer
- Chris Muth – Mastering Engineer
- Andrew Kochinka, Jasper Leach, Max Troppe, Dylan Simon – Recording Assistants
- Mike See – Art Director
- Anthony Artis – Photography
- Andy Gilbert – Liner Notes
Track listing
[edit]All songs composed and produced by Sean Mason, with lyrics by Mahogany L. Browne.[2]
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Homer, Louisiana (Prelude)" | 2:48 |
| 2. | "Redbone Dances" | 4:55 |
| 3. | "The Blk(est) Night 1993" | 0:57 |
| 4. | "Best Time III" | 5:31 |
| 5. | "Kerosene Litany" | 1:58 |
| 6. | "Trivia" | 4:52 |
| 7. | "Working Title" | 6:30 |
| 8. | "A Chorus of Hands" | 1:38 |
| 9. | "If We Praise (We Are Beautiful)" | 5:26 |
| 10. | "Crowned" | 3:48 |
| Total length: | 38:23 | |
Sean Mason collaborative albums
[edit]| Title | Details |
|---|---|
| Chrome Valley (with Mahogany L. Browne) |
|
| My Ideal (with Catherine Russell) |
|
References
[edit]- 1 2 3 4 5 "Lincoln Center's First Poet in Residence Mahogany L. Browne & Sean Mason Debut Album Chrome Valley Out Now". Sacks & Co. April 24, 2024. Retrieved August 6, 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 The Soapbox Presents, Chrome Valley label copy (release date, credits, ISRC/UPC data). Not independently published; on file with the label.
- 1 2 Mahogany L. Browne and Sean Mason on genre-traversing album 'Chrome Valley'. ABC News. May 20, 2024. Retrieved August 6, 2026.
- 1 2 "All Of It". May 21, 2024. WNYC Studios. Retrieved August 6, 2026.
{{cite episode}}: Missing or empty|series=(help) - 1 2 "Mahogany L. Browne uplifts and makes space for Black women's voices". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. February 17, 2023. Retrieved August 6, 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 "Chrome Valley: Track-by-Track" (PDF). Sacks & Co. Retrieved August 6, 2026.
- 1 2 "Mahogany L. Browne & Sean Mason to Release Chrome Valley April 19". Sacks & Co. February 23, 2024. Retrieved August 6, 2026.
- ↑ Roberts, Michael. "Sean Mason: Suite and Savory". Jazziz. Retrieved August 6, 2026.
- ↑ "Sean Mason Live on WKCR". WKCR. November 20, 2023. Retrieved August 6, 2026.
- "Chrome Valley: Artist Biography" (PDF). Sacks & Co. Retrieved August 6, 2026.
External links
[edit]- Official website – Mahogany L. Browne
- Official website – Sean Mason
- Official website – The Soapbox Presents
- The Soapbox Presents on Instagram
- Chrome Valley on Spotify
Category:2024 albums Category:Collaborative albums Category:Jazz poetry Category:Spoken word albums Category:Albums produced by Sean Mason
LLM-generated pages with certain obvious signs of being machine generated may be deleted without notice.
Instead, only summarize in your own words a range of independent, reliable, published sources that discuss the subject.
See the advice page on large language models for more information.