For those not in the know, Jazz musicians are nocturnal by nature. Almost as essential as time spent on the bandstand are the hours celebrated in the hang, where bonds are forged that inevitably feed back into the spirit and camaraderie of the music.

Those strong ties, lifelong relationships, and late-night revelries are vibrantly illustrated on Out Late, the exhilarating and inventive new album from pianist and composer Eric Scott Reed.

Out May 16th, 2025, via Smoke Sessions Records, Out Late boasts a striking stellar quintet whose members share deep histories with one another as well as with the label’s namesake Manhattan club.

The date features Reed with trumpeter Nicholas Payton, tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander, bassist Peter Washington, and drummer Joe Farnsworth.

“Every city has its own late-night vibration,” says Reed. “No shade to Paris or Vegas or Philly or Los Angeles, but being in New York City is not like being anywhere else in the world. Out Late references the life of the musicians – the nightlife and the activity, the feeling and the energy of those NYC vibrations.”

1. Glow
2. All’umfrs
3. Shadoboxing
4. They
5. Out Late
6. The Weirdos
7. Delightful Daddy

This expertly crafted, soulfully-infused and wholly impassioned new recording opens on the sumptuously hued Glow and the rhythmically crafted All’umfrs and then we get the fervently sculpted Shadoboxing, the spirited They, and they are in turn backed seamlessly by the forthright title track Out Late, then the playfully flirtatious The Weirdos and the all-encompassing Delightful Dad close the set out.

It’s a new beginning, certainly – flagged in part by the pianist’s decision to add his middle name to his professional sobriquet – but Out Late also brings Reed full circle. In assembling the quintet of modern masters for this session, he has called on some of his earliest acquaintances.

“Out Late, of course, is also a reference to finding myself much later in life,” he explains. “It’s about finally being able to embrace myself – my whole totality, my whole personage, who I am, who I love, why I do what I do, and how it’s all intertwined.”

www.ericscottreed.com