The vibraphonist and composer discusses the history behind his ambitious new suite, recording nine musicians live, the influence of Duke Ellington and the importance of protecting Houston’s historic Black neighborhoods.
Interview by Preston Frazier
Houston vibraphonist, composer and bandleader Jalen Baker transforms history into living, breathing music on RePaved, his third album as a leader. Due September 4, 2026, via Cellar Music Group, the eight-part suite honors Houston’s historic Third, Fourth and Fifth Wards while confronting the cultural erasure brought about by gentrification.
Baker brings together his longstanding quintet—flutist Alexandria DeWalt, pianist Paul Cornish, bassist Gabriel Godoy and drummer Gavin Moolchan—with a string quartet featuring violinists Yoojin Park and Chiara Jamila, violist Tia Allen and cellist Reenat Pinchas. Produced by trumpeter Jeremy Pelt, RePaved draws on family history, Juneteenth, Hurricane Harvey, Houston’s jazz legacy and the enduring strength of the city’s Black communities.
Baker joined the Slang of Ages Podcast to discuss the stories behind RePaved, the challenge of integrating a string quartet with a jazz ensemble, and the musicians who helped shape his development.
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Preston Frazier: The title RePaved immediately caught my attention. What is the story behind it?
Jalen Baker: The vast majority of the music is centered around neighborhoods in Houston where I grew up or have had a direct or indirect affiliation: Third Ward, Fourth Ward and Fifth Ward. Those are some of the city’s most prominent historically Black neighborhoods.
Black people began settling in those parts of Houston around 150 years ago, but today the neighborhoods are becoming increasingly gentrified. That is where the title RePaved comes from. The album pays homage to their historical significance and explores the idea of holding on to what has been here.
Preston: That is a difficult subject to bring together across an album, yet you make it feel effortless. Why did you decide to tell this story as a suite?
Jalen: I believe artists—especially jazz artists—have a responsibility to the world.
I’m from Houston and currently live here, but I moved back around 2020. After returning, I became very interested in my family’s history and how my family fits into Houston’s larger historical context.
We recently celebrated Juneteenth, and all of those events happened in Texas, beginning in Galveston. Cities such as Houston, Galveston, Austin and San Antonio were deeply affected by that history. It has been fascinating for me to trace that moment all the way to 2026 and discover the smaller intricacies of Houston’s history.
Houston is a very different kind of city. It is extraordinarily diverse, with all these pockets of people who intermingle. I have always been curious about how these neighborhoods became what they are and how we developed our own culture in the South.
Preston: Your previous album, Be Still, came out in 2023. Has your compositional process changed since then?
Jalen: I wouldn’t say the process itself has changed. I think the older I get, the more open I become to inspiration from different places.
I’m not necessarily searching for inspiration, but I’m open to it wherever it appears. Things that catch my eye or ear now may not have interested me three or four years ago. That probably comes with growth, maturity, and age. The actual act of writing, however, has remained fairly consistent.
Preston: You’re an educator, bandleader and composer. How has your playing developed over the past several years?
Jalen: I completed my master’s degree in 2019. Since then, I’ve been incredibly fortunate to play with talented veteran musicians such as Jeremy Pelt, Ulysses Owens Jr. and Johnathan Blake. I currently play in both Jeremy’s and Johnathan’s bands.
I consider them modern masters. Every time I play with them, I feel like I get a little better. Being around their spirit and witnessing their commitment to the craft has influenced me in every positive way imaginable.
Preston: RePaved is ambitious, but it is also accessible. How did you approach combining your band and vibraphone with a string quartet?
Jalen: I’ve known everybody in the band for quite a while. Paul Cornish, the pianist, is doing amazing things and is now a Blue Note recording artist. Paul and I have been good friends since we were nine or 10 years old.
I’ve known Gavin Moolchan, the drummer, for a long time, and he is also from Houston. I’ve known Alexandria DeWalt, the flutist, since elementary school. I attended college with Gabriel Godoy, my bass player.
They have been involved with my last two albums, including this one, so they understand what I’m looking for. I’m also open to their interpretations of the music. I’m not the kind of bandleader who tells everybody exactly what to do. I put the music in front of them, and what they bring to it is what happens. It is always exciting to hear that.
I have always loved string instruments. Because I don’t engage with them regularly, they are especially interesting to me. They are incredibly expressive. Incorporating them into this record allowed me to push and challenge myself—to write and perform music that I might not normally conceive.
From a compositional standpoint, there was a lot of trial and error and a lot of going back to the drawing board. The string players did a wonderful job.
Preston: When did you begin writing RePaved? Did you have the complete concept before you started?
Jalen: I had wanted to write something that represented my community. Whichever piece I wrote first, I knew there would be more. Once I began thinking about the ideas of community and culture, I knew I wanted the music to function as a continuous suite.
It wasn’t something that happened by chance. It was intentional.
Preston: Did you bring completed arrangements into the studio, or did the musicians contribute to the arrangements?
Jalen: Yes and no. Most of the written material was completed, but we had toured with some of the music before I had the opportunity to work with the string players. We performed stripped-down versions of several pieces, even though I had already written the string parts.
Certain things happened on the bandstand and ultimately made it onto the record. They might be subtle moments—perhaps Paul plays alone at the piano before the rest of the band returns. Those types of decisions were developed during live performances and later incorporated into the arrangements.
The notes were on the page, but the exact placement of certain events kept evolving. The physical sheet music probably does not align completely with what ended up on the album because things naturally shift when you perform the music live or enter the studio.
Preston: The interplay between the musicians is remarkable. Did the quintet record live first, followed by the strings?
Jalen: No. All nine musicians recorded live at the same time.
I’m not a big fan of overdubbing because I think it can remove some of the human element, the way musicians breathe together and move through a piece.
We recorded at GB’s Juke Joint in Long Island City, Queens. The quintet was in the main studio, while the strings were isolated in a separate room. We used a video connection and played together.
It came out exactly as I wanted. The musicians are incredible, so everything is clean, but the recording still has that human edge. We weren’t afraid to let the tempo fluctuate or allow the music to breathe. Everything sounds honest.
Preston: How long did the recording take?
Jalen: Two days.
Preston: Jeremy Pelt produced the album. What did he bring to the sessions?
Jalen: Jeremy had some excellent ideas. The organ at the beginning of “Antioch,” for example, was his suggestion. I wish it had been my idea because I love how it turned out. I think it establishes the tone for the entire record.
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Preston: Let’s talk about the individual pieces. The album opens with “Antioch,” and the interaction between your vibraphone and Alexandria DeWalt’s flute is magical. What do you remember about recording it?
Jalen: Surprisingly, “Antioch” was one of the easier pieces to record. I expected it to be trickier, but everybody nailed it.
Maybe that is because it looks difficult on paper. Sometimes difficult music forces everybody to lock in more closely. We probably did two takes. The first was good, but I believe we kept the second.
That was one of those pieces that felt right immediately. We touched up a few things and added the organ, but the musicians played with tremendous energy and intention. I’m very proud of it.
Alexandria is like my little sister. I love playing with her.
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Preston: “John Henry” has a very different atmosphere. It is quieter and more contemplative. How did you approach that composition?
Jalen: That one was more difficult to write because I don’t think I had previously composed anything entirely rubato.
For listeners who may not know the term, rubato means there is no fixed tempo or time. That created an additional challenge in the studio. Because the musicians were in separate spaces, there weren’t many clear sightlines. Some people could see one another and some couldn’t, so we had to listen very closely.
There is no count-off. I lead the ensemble through the melody and play it according to how I feel at that moment. Recording it became a very spiritual experience because we were so connected.
I wanted to create something in the spirit of John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme: a simple melody surrounded by a roar or rumble underneath it. You can’t completely explain to the musicians what you want from something like that. It has to happen naturally because the written material is relatively bare.
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Preston: “Dowling/Emancipation” brings an entirely different energy. It has fire, an infectious Afrobeat pulse and a tremendous drum solo. What inspired it?
Jalen: I wrote it about the most prominent street running through Third Ward. I’m sitting about a block away from it right now.
The street was named for a Confederate Army officer, but several years ago the city changed the name from Dowling Street to Emancipation Avenue. I saw that as a symbolic act of taking back something that belongs to us—taking pride in the neighborhood our community built and refusing to allow anyone to strip away its identity.
There has been a major Juneteenth celebration along Emancipation Avenue for many years, so I wanted the music to be lively. It has an Afrobeat feel and sounds like a party to me. I hope listeners experience it that way.
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Preston: “Freedman” slows the pace again. It is a beautiful ballad with a wonderful bass feature, but the music also feels triumphant.
Jalen: Houston’s Fourth Ward is also known as Freedmen’s Town. It is where many newly emancipated people settled following Juneteenth.
Although the piece has a slower, ballad-like tempo, I wanted it to feel triumphant. Near the end, the rhythm section introduces something resembling a march. I wanted the music to convey pride and strength.
That may have been the piece we performed most frequently before recording, so the band knew it extremely well. Everybody nailed it.
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Preston: “City on the Water” reflects on Hurricane Harvey. The string introduction is powerful, as is the section in the middle featuring the quartet.
Jalen: Hurricane Harvey struck Houston in 2017. It was terrible. Hurricanes usually move through an area, but Harvey arrived and essentially remained over Houston for about three days, flooding the city.
What inspired me was the way Houstonians came together and supported one another. We rebuilt as a community.
I had wanted to write something about that experience for a long time, and it fit within the album’s larger theme. Now that I think about it, “City on the Water” was actually the first piece I wrote for the suite.
I wanted to challenge my compositional abilities and create something more substantial. It is probably the longest track on the album. The different sections reflect the emotional ebbs and flows Houstonians experienced during that period.
There is a beautiful flute solo, a string introduction, and another section in the middle featuring only the strings. I’m really proud of that composition.
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Preston: “Cashmere” features another great vibraphone solo and some exceptional piano work from Paul Cornish. What is the history behind that piece?
Jalen: Cashmere Gardens is a neighborhood within Houston’s Fifth Ward, another predominantly Black and Brown area.
Its importance to Houston’s musical legacy comes from Kashmere High School, the birthplace of the Kashmere Stage Band. It was a high-school jazz and funk band led by the great Conrad Johnson. They caught lightning in a bottle. Their recordings are still sampled today, and the playing is so incredible that you would never believe you were listening to high-school musicians.
Kashmere High School was one of Houston’s few Black high schools at the time. In my opinion, its jazz program represents the birthplace of jazz education in Houston.
People often focus on the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, where musicians such as Robert Glasper, Jason Moran, Chris Dave, Eric Harland, Paul Cornish, James Francies and I studied. But without Kashmere High School, I don’t believe there would have been a model for Houston’s performing-arts high school.
I wanted to write something funky that reflected the spirit of those great bands from the 1960s and ’70s.
Preston: Did performing these compositions live help you determine who would introduce a piece or how one selection would move into another?
Jalen: Definitely. We didn’t get to perform everything extensively before recording, but the live performances gave us opportunities to experiment with the arrangements and decide who would begin each piece.
Even now, after touring with some of this music, we remain loose about how the songs begin and end. A different person might start a piece on any given night. We don’t necessarily count everything off. We might move immediately from one composition into another, and whoever feels inspired to take the reins will do it.
The recorded versions are more defined, but many of those decisions came from playing the music live.
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Preston: “Bamsha Blues” has some fascinating time signatures and changes.
Jalen: “Bamsha Blues” isn’t an original composition. It is a mashup of Duke Ellington’s “C Jam Blues” and Thelonious Monk’s “Bemsha Swing.”
I feel that I should include something by one of the masters on every album as a way of paying homage. Duke Ellington, in particular, inspired much of what happens on RePaved. His extended, theme-based works, including The Queen’s Suite, were important references.
I already had this arrangement, and because Ellington inspired so much of the album, it felt appropriate to record it. We had been performing it for a while, so it was also one of the less stressful pieces to play in the studio. We could simply play it and see what happened.
I love how it came out. It really captures the way this band performs.
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Preston: The album concludes with “Smile.” Why did you choose that song?
Jalen: I love the song and its meaning.
The album’s central subject could be perceived as sad or melancholy, but that was not my intention. I’m tremendously proud of the history of these neighborhoods and even hopeful about where they are headed because I see people fighting for them every day.
People are refusing to give up their homes and are making a concerted effort to maintain a sense of community. Seeing that made “Smile” feel like the perfect way to end the record. It suggests that there is always beauty on the horizon.
To me, it is one of the greatest songs ever written. The lyrics are beautiful. I only wish I could sing so that I could have sung it myself.
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Preston: Do you compose primarily on the vibraphone or piano?
Jalen: It is a little of everything, but I gravitate toward the piano because it allows me to strip away some of my technique.
I’m not a pianist by trade. I can play piano, but I would never accept a piano gig. Working at the piano helps me simplify my ideas.
I wrote some of the album on vibraphone. I also started as a drummer, so sometimes I begin with a groove or rhythmic feeling and compose around that. For this record, however, I probably spent the most time at the piano.
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Preston: I usually conclude with an unfair question: What are five of your favorite albums?
Jalen: I’ll be a little biased toward vibraphonists today.
The first is Milt Jackson and Cannonball Adderley’s Things Are Getting Better. That may have been one of the first albums on which I heard vibraphone.
Ambrose Akinmusire’s The Imagined Savior Is Far Easier to Paint was very formative and important to me. A lot of what I did on RePaved was influenced by that album.
I would also choose John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme.
Another is an underrated Miles Davis album, Miles Smiles. It feels like a live recording, even though it was made in the studio. The musicians don’t play it safe. That is how I believe jazz should be performed—it should feel live whether you’re in a studio or onstage.
Finally, I’ll mention Paul Cornish’s You’re Exaggerating. It came out on Blue Note last September and has definitely been in heavy rotation. Paul is one of my favorite musicians, so I’ll give him a little free promotion.
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Preston: You recently completed a tour. Will you return to the road this fall?
Jalen: We’re planning about a week of touring at the end of September. We’ll perform in Houston and Austin before traveling to England for shows at Ronnie Scott’s in London and the Brighton Jazz Festival.
We’ll then return to the East Coast for performances in Providence, Brooklyn, and at the Side Door Jazz Club in Connecticut. It will be a busy week of shows.
Preston: Touring with a vibraphone presents logistical challenges. Do you travel with your instrument or arrange to have one waiting at the venue?
Jalen: Venues have become much more accommodating during the past 10 years, so they usually don’t mind providing an instrument.
I don’t travel with a vibraphone. I did that once and will never do it again.
There are many excellent vibraphonists working today, so venues increasingly understand that they will be asked to provide a vibraphone.
I play Marimba One instruments. They have taken care of me since I was in college, and I don’t thank them enough. In my opinion, they make the best mallet instruments in the world. If any young mallet players are listening, get yourself a Marimba One instrument. It will last your entire life.
Preston: Is there anyone else you would like to recognize for helping bring RePaved to life?
Jalen: I appreciate Cory Weeds, the founder of Cellar Music Group; Jeremy Pelt, who produced the record; Lydia Liebman; Martin Joseph; and my entire team.
I have been fortunate to work with these incredible people since the beginning of my professional career in 2019. They have been involved with almost every one of my records in some capacity.
I also appreciate you taking the time to speak with me.
Preston: RePaved is challenging, educational, and filled with extraordinary performances. Jalen, thank you for your time.
Jalen: Thank you so much.
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RePaved will be released September 4, 2026, via Cellar Music Group. For additional information, music and tour dates, visit Jalen Baker’s official website.