Night Lights Classic Jazz Radio Program and Jazz Blog with David Brent Johnson

Night Lights is a weekly one-hour radio program of classic jazz hosted by David Brent Johnson and produced by WFIU Public Radio. Night Lights airs on WFIU HD1 Saturday at 11:05 p.m.

October 31, 2008

Ghostly Jazz and Popular Song for Halloween, Part 1

By David Brent Johnson

Ghost Dance This week on WFIU’s Afterglow we get into the “spirit” of things, so to speak, with “Ghost of a Song,” a program of otherworldly songs in honor of the Halloween holiday. Prominent among our ethereal cast are Fred Astaire (“Me and the Ghost Upstairs”), Nina Simone (“I Put a Spell On You”), Lambert, Hendricks and Ross (“Halloween Spooks”), Leon Redbone (“Ghost of St. Louis Blues”), Billie Holiday (“Ghost of Yesterday”), Peggy Lee (“Ghost Riders in the Sky”), and many more musical apparitions. From the Night Lights archives you can also check out Strange Enchantment, an early entry in the annals of NL shows that includes the story of New Orleans’ jazz-loving “Mysterious Axeman” murderer.