Josh Jackson
Associate General Manager, Jazz and Classical HostJosh Jackson is the associate general manager for programming and content at WRTI.
He began his radio career at WWOZ in New Orleans, worked as a production assistant at American Routes, and moved to New York City to become the associate producer of Jazz From Lincoln Center with Ed Bradley.
Josh was formerly the vice president of content at WBGO and the program director of Virginia's statewide network of NPR news and music stations.
He was the founding producer of the multi-platform concert series Live at the Village Vanguard and The Checkout: Live, a concert experience for the hourly music magazine he created, The Checkout. His efforts in multimedia production led to the creation of NPR's Jazz Night in America.
At WRTI, he was the producing partner with JazzDanmark for the 2021Dangerous Sounds podcast.
Josh is a two-time recipient of the Willis Conover-Marian McPartland Award for Broadcasting. He came to WRTI from the Blue Ridge mountains of Virginia and now lives in the less elevated region of Mt. Airy in Philadelphia, where he listens to vinyl records and makes radio shows in his basement.
Hear Josh as host of Friday Mixtape, Fridays from 6 to 10 p.m.
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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. -
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!
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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.
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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.
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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
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"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!
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
