GRAMMY Dispatches
A few quick takes on Music's Biggest Night™️
Whew, it’s been a long week, and we’re at [checks calendar] uh, Tuesday. So, the GRAMMY Awards. Maybe you care not a whit; maybe you care quite a bit. Professional obligations kept me tuned in to the whole affair. For a newsy, thorough take on this year’s jazz and classical results, I’ll refer you to these posts at WRTI:
Jazz winners run both familiar and fresh at the 2026 Grammy Awards
Classical artists make a statement at the 2026 Grammy Awards
We also did a rapid-response conversation at the top of The Late Set. Josh Jackson and I talked about the tandem tribute to D’Angelo and Roberta Flack. We shared our responses to most of the jazz awards, including the one that Chick Corea won posthumously and the one that he didn’t. We bantered about the overall integrity of the Recording Academy and its process.
Here’s a pertinent video clip pulled by our producer, Alex Ariff.
The GRAMMYs response takes up the top of the episode, leading up to our main event: Josh’s terrific recent conversation with bassist, composer and bandleader Dezron Douglas, which took place late last year at Solar Myth. Dez gets into his upbringing in Hartford, Connecticut, where he was mentored by (among others) Jackie McLean and Nat Reeves. He talks about what differentiates, say, a quartet from a band. And he reflects on how he gradually found an authentic identity within the music, after convincingly adapting to a vibe that didn’t entirely suit him.
Look, I made a “Listen Here” button, to make this laughably easy. But if you prefer text links, fine: listen to the episode by following this link.
Of course the easiest way to get any episode of The Late Set is to subscribe via Spotify or Apple Podcasts, or whatever other service you use (via our RSS feed). And please tell a friend! We make this show because we think it serves a need, and also because it’s fun. I hope you agree (on both counts). Feel free to let us know either way.
Odds + Ends
Saying it again for anybody who didn’t check out the links: I am psyched that Sullivan Fortner won Best Instrumental Jazz Album for Southern Nights. As you may recall, this ranked high on what is now my most popular post at The Gig.
Congrats to my homie Ashley Kahn! His Best Albums Notes win for Miles ‘55: The Prestige Recordings is a nice tie-in to our Miles Davis centennial year.
Bad Bunny’s DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS for Album of the Year? Damn straight. I cannot wait for this Super Bowl Halftime Show.
The NPR Music team flooded the zone with GRAMMYs coverage, and I heartily recommend this 10 Takeaways framing from Stephen Thompson. (Among those takeaways: “‘Messy’ was the word of the night.”)
No surprise that the most bracing, lacerating take on Music’s Biggest Night™️ comes from Harmony Holiday, speaking more of the spectacle than the awards. “I can’t rule out the possibility that we’re part of an inversion spell wherein the so-called dead are more animated than the disembodied corpses we mistake for the living and the songs are failing because our rituals and ceremonies have turned into commercials so unconvincing you forget they’re trying to sell you the myth of their enduring beauty.” Here is the post.