The Late Set

Jazz radio has never had a better friend than Rhonda Hamilton. During a broadcasting career spanning nearly 50 years,
she’s brought the music to a worldwide audience with her trademark warmth, integrity and composure.




This year she received a fitting honor: the A.B. Spellman NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship for Jazz Advocacy,
which she’ll formally receive on Sept. 15 during a gala concert at Walt Disney Hall in Los Angeles.
She’ll be in fine company there: the 2026 class of honorees also includes drummer and percussionist Airto Moreira;
keyboardist, vocalist and producer Patrice Rushen; and singer, songwriter and bandleader Carmen Lundy.




Rhonda is now on the air at KKJZ-FM in Southern California, but during her longtime tenure at Newark Public Radio,
she worked with Josh Jackson, Nate Chinen and our producer, Alex Ariff. We were all delighted to reconnect with her
in a conversation brimming with insights from one of our very best.



Chapters


00:00 — Coltrane 100 Philly kickoff

02:00 — NEA Jazz Masters & this year's honorees

10:00 — Interview with Rhonda Hamilton

49:00 — Key records & jazz recommendations

55:30 — Dizzy Gillespie dinner story

1:02:30 — “This I Dig”




Learn more about WRTI’s John Coltrane @100 celebration:

wrti.org





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When SML dropped its 2024 debut, the group’s admixture of loopy groove, staticky texture and shifting timbre came on like a transmission from the outer reaches. Behind the music was a method: rangy collective improv whittled down to size, based on a trove of live tape.




SML has released two more albums since, the latest of which, Spontaneous Music Live, consists of two unedited long performances rooted in real-time interplay. For this episode, three of SML’s five members — bassist Anna Butterss, saxophonist Josh Johnson and synthesist Jeremiah Chiu — joined Julian Booker, WRTI’s Associate Program Director for Jazz, to talk about their commitment to shared discovery. (The others are guitarist Gregory Uhlmann and percussionist Booker Stardrum.)




Listen in to learn more about one of our moment’s most beguiling bands.



Chapters


00:00 — Intro & welcome

01:51 — SML at Big Ears

05:49 — SML’s process: turning live tape into records

10:55 — The band, lineup & modular synths

13:01 — Interview with SML

50:15 — Back with Nate & Julian: is this jazz?

55:13 — “This I Dig”




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The gayageum is a plucked Korean zither with a history that stretches to the sixth century. Its first and finest exponent in avant-garde jazz is DoYeon Kim, whose spellbinding debut, Wellspring, reveals a fiercely original voice (in more than one sense). Before a recent show presented by Ars Nova Workshop and the Doris Duke Foundation, Kim joined us to talk about tradition, translation, and the power of self-expression. She even graced us with a solo improvisation on her instrument, which has fast become a vital part of the experimental scene.



Chapters:



00:00 – Intro: South Korean jazz and the gayageum

02:15 – Meet DoYeon Kim and her groundbreaking approach

05:12 – Live from Solar Myth: Welcome and birthday surprise

06:25 – The success of Wellspring and finding a larger purpose

09:10 – Discovering the gayageum and falling in love with its sound

13:05 – Dance, movement, and Korean concepts of rhythm

16:25 – Growing up in Korea and discovering cultural identity in Canada

20:00 – Joe Morris and finding her artistic voice

23:45 – Beyond "exotic": Becoming DoYeon Kim, not just a gayageum player

27:15 – Finding her voice—literally—through improvisation

31:05 – Building Wellspring with Tyshawn Sorey, Matt Maneri & Henry Fraser

34:05 – The symbolism and history of the gayageum

36:45 – Exclusive live solo improvisation

38:35 – Post-interview reflections on Wellspring and the Solar Myth performance

41:15 – This I Dig: Josh's Provence wine recommendation

44:05 – This I Dig: Ben Goldberg's ambitious "8 by 8" album project

47:15 – Closing credits




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Steven Bernstein is a known wildcard in the modern jazz game. He's a wily slide trumpeter, and the whip-smart bandleader behind both Millennial Territory Orchestra, a pugnacious little big band, and Sexmob, a go-anywhere four-piece band. So in some respects, Bernstein's latest is striking for its directness.


ResoNation Trio finds him strictly on valve trumpet and flugelhorn, with a lean-and-limber rhythm team of Scott Colley on bass and Nasheet Waits on drums. True to form, Bernstein added a further twist — inviting maverick producer Scotty Hard to reconstitute the trio's recordings for the companion album Ultra Resonance, a kaleidoscopic refraction evoking both dub and electronic collage.


Bernstein dropped by our studio before a recent show to talk about the jazz tradition, his drive for connection, and why this project had to happen now.


Watch the full conversation on our YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/n3IwFJe5AiE


Chapters:

00:00 – Intro: Josh & Nate catch up, remember Steven during the pandemic

03:42 – Introducing the new records: ResoNation Trio & Ultra Resonance

06:08 – Interview begins: welcoming Steven Bernstein

07:02 – Steven as "the ultimate band guy" — why it had to be Colley & Waits

08:30 – Bay Area roots: coming up around Andrew Hill, Rahsaan, the AACM

11:00 – "Spontaneous composition" and the making of ResoNation Trio

14:04 – Why now: readiness, aging, and finding his own voice

20:48 – Sequencing the album & introducing Ultra Resonance

22:33 – Dub roots: Garvey's Ghost, Scotty Hard's remix process

29:41 – Magical realism as the concept linking both albums

31:25 – Live performance: Steven plays flugelhorn ("Rotary") + the horn's history

38:55 – Learning from Levon Helm — melody, blues, and "spiritual jazz"

42:21 – Jazz education, rhythm, and drummers as the root of the music

50:20 – On legacy, influence, and Sex Mob's lasting impact

1:00:07 – Debrief + "This I Dig"


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Mana, the new album by Kalia Vandever, takes its name from a Native Hawaiian term for spiritual energy or sacred power. It’s an intentional gesture from an artist who has long possessed the instinct of a shape-shifter.




In addition to trombone, Vandever works with electronics and synthesizers on the album, as well as vocals — a first, inspired in part by their experiences with Haley Heynderickx, Japanese Breakfast and Harry Styles.




Before a mesmerizing solo performance at Solar Myth, Vandever joined Nate Chinen for a conversation about myth and mystique, collaboration and solitude, and what it means to open up in new ways as an improvising artist.



Chapters


00:00 — Intro: Entering the World of Mana

05:11 — Interview Begins: Hawaiian Ancestry, Spirituality & Inspiration

13:20 — Touring with Harry Styles and Finding a Performance Voice

20:21 — Singing, Songwriting & Emotional Honesty on Mana

29:07 — International Anthem, Genre and the Evolution of Kalia's Music

35:43 — Interview Wrap-Up

37:09 — “This I Dig”: Micah Thomas's Lucid & Emily Wilson's The Odyssey

42:20 — Producer's Picks: Henry Solomon, Louis Armstrong & Laurent Benedict

49:06 — Credits




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