Several recent Pacific Jazz re-issues of Chet Baker are the focus of this edition of Night Lights, including Chet Baker Ensemble, Chet Baker Sextet, and Chet Baker Sings and Plays. These recordings were all done between 1953 and 1955, when Baker’s star was ascending and he was relatively untroubled by…
Ken Burns’ new documentary about Jack Johnson, the first African-American heavyweight boxing champion, is not the first film about the boxer; in 1970 William Cayton made a documentary as well, with a soundtrack by Miles Davis. This edition of Night Lights features music taken from the Sony/Legacy box-set MILES DAVIS: THE COMPLETE JACK JOHNSON…
Not long after bassist Charles Mingus' death in 1979, three men who had played frequently with him throughout the 1970s began a group of their own.
This week on Night Lights it’s jazz from the late-1940s/early-1950s Boston scene, featuring alto saxophonist Charlie Mariano, pianist and arranger Nat Pierce, and baritone saxophonist Serge Chaloff. The Boston scene was a thriving one, enhanced in part by the presence of the Boston Conservatory of Music, which stood out for its acceptance of…