The Late Set

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Jaleel Shaw Recorded Live at Solar Myth Jul 18, 2025

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Jaleel Shaw's elegy "Tamir" is vividly rendered in this exclusive live performance at Solar Myth, available exclusively on The Late Set.

Satchmo at Home, with Ricky Riccardi Jul 08, 2025

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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.

Best Jazz of 2025 (So Far) Jun 24, 2025

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Don’t look now, but we’ve reached the midpoint of 2025 — and listened our way through well over a hundred albums, in search of elevated sounds. It feels like the right time for a progress report, so we’re sharing half a dozen of our leading contenders. Nate gives the nod to albums by pianist Myra Melford, alto saxophonist Steve Lehman, and pianist Sullivan Fortner. Josh brings his endorsement to releases by bassist John Clayton, trumpeter Nicholas Payton, and tenor saxophonist Noah Preminger. Along the way, they talk about a handful of other noteworthy recordings — and allude to some other highlights that await us in the latter half of the year.

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Best Jazz of 2025 (So Far) Jun 24, 2025

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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.

Into the Amazon, with Amaro Freitas Jun 10, 2025

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Amaro Freitas was born in Recife, on the northeastern coast of Brazil. He began playing the piano in church, discovering jazz after his first exposure to the music of Chick Corea. What Freitas has done since is a small miracle of syncretism: his style as a pianist and composer nods to the modern jazz tradition but also the sounds of Afro-Brazilian and indigenous music — and the music of nature, some of which he gathered in field recordings from the Amazon. Earlier this year, Freitas sat down with Josh Jackson during the Winter Jazzfest in New York, for a wide-open conversation about his album Y’Yand so much more. We know you’ll enjoy it.

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Into the Amazon, with Amaro Freitas Jun 10, 2025

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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.

New Pinnacle, with Brandee Younger May 27, 2025

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The spiritual and the sensual find common cause in the music of Brandee Younger. As the world’s leading improvising harpist, she carries a torch for Alice Coltrane, whose astral meditations continue to light a path. But there’s also a place in Younger’s art for playfulness, even mischief — as she reminds us with Gadabout Season, her third album for Impulse! Records. Before a recent show at Solar Myth, part of Ars Nova Workshop’s 25th anniversary season, Younger sat down with The Late Set for this fun and far-ranging conversation. Weeks later, she’d be named a Doris Duke Artist and play Coltrane’s harp in a tribute at Carnegie Hall — making “New Pinnacle,” the title of a song on the new album, feel like a statement of fact.

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New Pinnacle, with Brandee Younger May 27, 2025

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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.

Run the Song, with Ben Ratliff May 12, 2025

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“Out quickly and on the move” — so begins a bracing new book by Ben Ratliff, the brilliant music critic and scholar. It’s titled Run the Song: Writing About Running About Listening, and it follows Ratliff’s thoughtful line of inquiry as he brings music into his daily running practice. His guiding concern is the way that movement sharpens his perceptions: “Running and listening can illuminate each other,” he writes. In this episode, recorded in front of an audience at Solar Myth, Ratliff talks about this and other ideas in conversation with Nate Chinen, a friend and former colleague at the New York Times.

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Run the Song, with Ben Ratliff May 12, 2025

Show notes

"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.

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