Night Lights Classic Jazz

Sassy First Soars: Sarah Vaughan in the 1940s

In the 1940s a young jazz singer with a four-octave range and bebop chops burst onto the big-band scene with Earl Hines and Billy Eckstine before going on to establish herself as a solo star. Read More »

Recent Shows

The Revolution Will Be Recorded: The Flying Dutchman Story

Bob Thiele had already spent three decades in the music business recording legendary jazz and pop artists when he started a new record label in 1969 that brought on board notable musicians such as Gil Scott-Heron, Leon Thomas, Duke Ellington, Oliver Nelson, and Louis Armstrong with music that reflected the cultural upheaval of the times.

Exploring the convergence of jazz and the civil-rights movement in Max Roach's career during a turbulent decade.

Jazz is usually thought of as an album format, but once upon a time you could drop a coin into a slot and fill up a bar or restaurant with the sounds of artists such as Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, and Horace Silver spinning off a three-minute-long machine-operated platter.

Long before the rise of the black-pride movement in the 1960s, Ellington was writing music that celebrated African-American culture, personalities, and history.

In the late 1970s Columbia Records’ jazz roster included artists such as Dexter Gordon, Woody Shaw, Weather Report, Freddie Hubbard, Bobby Hutcherson, Stan Getz and others, led by a label executive with a deep passion for their music. The program includes commentary from jazz producer Michael Cuscuna.

In the final months of their lives, jazz artists have sometimes made recordings of great power and poignancy. This edition of Night Lights features music from Bill Evans, Miles Davis, Billie Holiday, Clifford Brown, Stan Getz and more.

Jazz fans are known for their religious-like zeal, but in the 1960s jazz sometimes became a PART of religion, providing the soundtrack for masses and other church ceremonies.

Night Lights pays tribute to the holidays in the mellowest of moods.

Older stories »

Night Lights Blog

Remembering Janis Stockhouse Part 2

We continue our remembrance of the Bloomington jazz educator with former Stockhouse student Sara Caswell and Stockhouse's colleague Thomas Wilson.

Jazz artists and educators Natalie Boeyink, Rachel Caswell, and Lissa May discuss the life and legacy of the longtime Bloomington High School North band director.

Joe Bourne, the founding host of WFIU's long-running weekday afternoon jazz program Just You And Me, came back to help the show turn 40 with a live-audience broadcast.

A Quincy Jones tribute and remembrance.

David Brent Johnson remembers Indiana writer Dan Wakefield.

Two of the late singer's children stopped by WFIU to discuss their mother's life and music.

A musical and conversational remembrance of Bloomington singer Janiece Jaffe, who passed away on November 23, 2022 at 64. Jaffe friends and collaborators Dave Bruker, Peter Lerner, and David Miller discuss her life and legacy, and we hear some of Jaffe's concert and studio recordings as well.

More classic jazz sets on the way from Mosaic Records.

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Noon Edition

Sassy First Soars: Sarah Vaughan in the 1940s

Recent Shows

The Revolution Will Be Recorded: The Flying Dutchman Story

It's Time! Max Roach In The 1960s

Jukebox Jazz

Swing It Loud: Duke Ellington's Early Black-Pride Music

A Winning Season of Jazz: Columbia Records in the Late 1970s

The Last: Final Recordings Of Jazz Greats

Sacred Blue: Jazz Goes To Church In the 1960s

Have Yourself a Very Quiet Christmas

Night Lights Blog

Remembering Janis Stockhouse Part 2

Remembering Janis Stockhouse

Just You And Joe: Joe Bourne Returns For A WFIU Jazz Celebration

Quincy Jones Brought Us Together

Wakefield's Way: Dan Wakefield, 1932-2024

A Family Tribute To Janiece Jaffe

A Tribute To Janiece Jaffe 1958-2022

New And Forthcoming From Mosaic: Freddie Hubbard, Sonny Clark, Jazz At The Philharmonic

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