Night Lights Classic Jazz
Clarinetist Pee Wee Russell’s career on record stretched all the way from the 1920s, when he played with musicians such as Jack Teagarden and Bix Beiderbecke, to the 1960s, when he appeared with Thelonious Monk at Newport and made albums that included compositions by modernists such as Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane. Although he was pegged as being Dixieland by some and trumpeted as an elder hero of the 60s avant-garde by others, Russell remained a school unto himself…
Jazz greats such as Dexter Gordon, Bud Powell, Kenny Clarke, and Don Byas spent long periods of time on the European continent and made many recordings there.
"Betty Roche was an unforgettable singer," Duke Ellington wrote of his former vocalist in 1973. "She never sounded like anybody but Betty Roche."
The very cool Jazz Icons DVD series has announced the release of seven more titles, including concerts by Duke Ellington, John Coltrane, Sarah Vaughan, Dexter Gordon, Wes Montgomery, Dave Brubeck, and Charles Mingus.
In lieu of the proverbial time machine that could take us back to 52nd Street circa 1950, or the Plugged Nickel circa 1968, there’s always YouTube. Recently videos of the Lennie Tristano Quintet performing Subconscious-Lee, 317 E. 32nd St., and Background Music at New York City’s Half Note club in 1964 have been posted. This was–if I’m not mistaken–one of the last times that alto saxophonist Lee Konitz performed with Tristano, and tenor great Warne Marsh was there as well.
A few years ago writer Joe Milazzo hipped me to a sort of underground jazz history–That Devilin’ Tune, written by musician Allen Lowe. An impassioned, non-canonical, and smartly written work, it makes the case for many musicians who’ve been left by the wayside on the lost highway of American music. So many jazz histories telescope…
Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami on his introduction to jazz and what it meant to him. (If you’re interested in jazz and post-WWII Japan, check out…
As some posters at Organissimo have noted, tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley, if still alive, would have turned 77 today–on 07/07/07, that lucky date of destiny. Maybe Mobley, the so-called “middleweight champion” of his instrument, will posthumously reap the good fortune that eluded him in his lifetime. At least the tenor saxophonist, like fellow Blue Note recording artist…
Back in the early 1990s, when I was in the first throes of becoming a passionate jazzhead, a friend made me a mix tape called “Henry Grimes, Where Are You?” He knew of my obsession with the missing bassist, who appeared on many classic 1960s jazz recordings and worked with everybody from Benny Goodman and Gerry Mulligan to Cecil Taylor and Albert Ayler before vanishing in the late 1960s–presumably dead, according…
Just ahead of this weekend’s Bastille Day salute to the expatriate African-American jazz community–more video of Bud Powell in Paris:
No, this isn’t about Jackie McLean’s Prestige years, though one of these days we’re going to do a show on that very topic. Night Lights recently marked its third year on the air, and the third anniversary of the website’s launch is just around the corner…
For south-central Indiana readers of the blog: David Baker will be leading the Festival Jazz Orchestra, a top-flight group of IU jazz faculty & students, in performance Monday evening. To hear Baker in some classic small-group sessions…
A good post from Doug Ramsey’s Rifftides blog about composer/arranger A.K. Salim, a rather mysterious figure from the 1950s/60s jazz world who’s intrigued me ever since I came across a used copy of his Savoy album Blues Suite…
Ubu Roi has posted a very tasty 1984 concert by the Mal Waldron Quintet, featuring Waldron on piano, Woody Shaw on trumpet, Charlie Rouse…
Jazz fans still commiserate online over the self-imposed suspension of Alan Lankin’s Jazzmatazz site, which provided an in-depth, wide-ranging rundown of forthcoming jazz releases. All About Jazz maintains a new-release page, as does Jazzitude; if readers are aware of any…
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I received word this morning from bassist Don Messina that pianist Sal Mosca passed away yesterday afternoon at the age of 80. Mosca, whose story as a musician is inevitably linked to teacher/mentor Lennie Tristano, was…
Several days ago I got a very nice e-mail from the person who runs All Things Emily, a fantastically-detailed site devoted to the late guitarist Emily Remler. She had happened upon the March 2007 Night Lights show “Emily Remler: a Musical Remembrance”, which included an interview with Remler friend and sometime musical associate Robert Jospe. Some clips…
Compilations are usually anathema to jazz aficionados, but Allen Lowe's Devilin' Tune project offers a highly compelling tour of music history.
The new Charles Mingus/Eric Dolphy release from Blue Note, Cornell 1964, arrived at the station last week. Along with the recent reissue of the little-known 1970 Complete America Session and last year’s ragged but vital At UCLA 1965 (aka Music Written for Monterey, 1965 Not Heard…played in its entirety), it’s been a good run lately for Mingus fans. The Monterey and America dates give us glimpses of Mingus from a period…
David Brent Johnson hosts the weekly WFIU historical jazz program Night Lights and Afterglow as well. Learn more »
In 1964 Dean Martin recorded a laidback martini-at-the-fireside album that included the original version of a song that would soon become his signature tune.
Afterglow is WFIU's weekly program of jazz and American popular song hosted by David Brent Johnson.
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Pianist Hank Jones on NPR’s 
