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Jazz is a conversation — and that’s what The Late Set is all about. Nate Chinen and Josh Jackson convene every two weeks for straight talk and in-depth interviews with featured guests. Just like a hang at the end of the gig, in the back of the club, it’s direct, unfiltered and illuminating, revealing the music and its culture in a deeper light.
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About Ghosts is the latest album from Mary Halvorson's Amaryllis, and on our short list for Album of the Year. Before a recent show at Solar Myth, Halvorson sat down with Josh Jackson to talk about her approach to composing for the group, her inspirations, and her fondness for mixology.
![[EXCLUSIVE] Mary Halvorson’s Amaryllis live at Solar Myth](https://wrti-od.streamguys1.com/wrti-group/20250916121411-90.png "[EXCLUSIVE] Mary Halvorson’s Amaryllis live at Solar Myth")
Before our chat with Mary Halvorson drops Tuesday, here’s a treat — a live recording from Solar Myth with her band Amaryllis, including a brand-new WRTI exclusive: “Florid Waning.”
Growing up in the Ramblewood area of northeast Baltimore, Brandon Woody could hardly have envisioned a future as one of the most heralded young trumpeter-bandleaders in jazz. But he dared to dream beyond what he could see — even after dropping out of college in New York. His 2025 Blue Note debut, For the Love of It All, introduces a powerfully emotive artist and a committed working band, Upendo, primed to represent their hometown. Woody sat down with The Late Set just after a set at the Exit Zero Jazz Festival, ready to open up and dig in.
We're reposting Nate Chinen’s illuminating conversation with esperanza spalding, which will be featured in the inaugural episode of The Late Set Radio Hour. Tune in on Oct. 26 — Milton Nascimento's 83rd birthday.
Now both in their 40s, brothers Zaccai and Luques Curtis have amassed a wealth of experience, and the mentorship of elders ranging from Jackie McLean to Eddie Palmieri to Ralph Peterson, Jr..In this lively conversation at the Exit Zero Jazz Festival, the two open up about their upbringing in Hartford, Conn.; the hidden circuitries of so-called Latin Jazz; and the industrious spark that led to Zaccai’s Grammy Award-winning album Cubop Lives!
Terence Blanchard's career has brought him to many posts, including the executive artistic director of SFJAZZ and the first Black composer at The Metropolitan opera. To each of these and beyond, he's carried his perspectives on culture and how it operates. Just before his performance at the Exit Zero Jazz Fest, Blanchard sat down with The Late Set to discuss how culture flows, and what it means to lead from a place of service.
Kassa Overall's smart new album, CREAM, is a celebration of 1990s hip-hop and its classic source material within the framework of small-group acoustic jazz. He joined Nate and WRTI Evening Jazz host Nicole Sweeney to talk about it before a front-to-back performance at Solar Myth.
Sonny Rollins is turning 95: a great excuse to toast one of our finest living jazz artists. So in this special episode of The Late Set, Josh Jackson and Nate Chinen are joined by a handful of WRTI’s on-air hosts
"Live at the Village Vanguard" is one of the most familiar phrases in the jazz discography, a marker of place and a point of pride. But why? Together we’ve logged hundreds of hours in the club, so let's talk about it. Tumble down those stairs with us and listen up!
On his fine new Blue Note album, Words Fall Short, saxophonist Joshua Redman introduces a band full of up-and-comers, including Philly’s own Nazir Ebo. This young cohort reminded us of a conversation The Late Set had with Redman in the fall of 2023. We're sharing it again with you now.
Painter of the Invisible is Jaleel Shaw's first full-band album in more than a dozen years. But it's not as if Shaw, an alto and soprano saxophonist from Philadelphia, has been slacking; as he explains in this revealing episode of The Late Set, the pause had more to do with high standards and pure convictions.
Jaleel Shaw's elegy "Tamir" is vividly rendered in this exclusive live performance at Solar Myth, available exclusively on The Late Set.
Louis Armstrong belonged to the world. But for more than half of his illustrious career, he made his home in Corona, Queens — where we recently paid a visit to the Louis Armstrong House Museum. There we sat down with Ricky Riccardi — the museum's Director of Research Collections, and a celebrated Armstrong biographer — to discuss Satchmo's life and career.
We’ve reached the midpoint of 2025, and listened our way through well over a hundred albums. In this episode, we’re sharing half a dozen of our favorites.
Pianist-composer Amaro Freitas creates music with a vivid sense of place. His native Brazil pulses through his most recent album, Y'Y, which mixes jazz with Afro-Brazilian and indigenous music, and the sounds of the Amazon. Freitas discusses this and more with Josh Jackson, in a deeply searching conversation recorded backstage at New York's Winter Jazzfest earlier this year.
The spiritual and the sensual find common cause in the music of harpist Brandee Younger. Before a recent show at Solar Myth, she sat down with The Late Set to talk about her instrument, her cohort, and her third Impulse! release, Gadabout Season, which finds her in exceptional form.
"Running and listening can illuminate each other,” argues critic Ben Ratliff in a new book, Run the Song: Writing About Running About Listening. He recently sat down to talk about the book, its back story and his listening practice with friend and colleague Nate Chinen at Solar Myth.
Violinist Jenny Scheinman grew up along Northern California’s so-called Lost Coast, and she carries its rustic charm and mystique in her music — even when it assumes a form as elegant as the songs on All Species Parade, her recent double album. She talks with Josh Jackson about the album and other matters before a recent performance with her band at Solar Myth.
Few events embody the act of listening and receiving quite like the Big Ears Festival. In this episode, Nate reports back from the fest, and shares an interview with two artists who performed there: trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith and pianist Vijay Iyer, who have a new duo album called Defiant Life.
As a kickoff to Jazz Appreciation Month, we're looking ahead to Record Store Day. There's another great haul of archival releases dropping on April 12. Two of our favorites were recorded in the same room in 1967 by two amazing trumpeters, Kenny Dorham and Freddie Hubbard.
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