This week on Night Lights we conclude our summer tour of the Decca Jazz Studio series with the fifth and sixth (and final) volumes. V. 5, led by pianist and arranger Ralph Burns, includes trumpeter Joe Newman and little-known alto saxophonist Dave Schildkraut, who was once mistaken for Charlie Parker by Charles Mingus during a blindfold test. Selections include Burns’ originals “Cool Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” and “Nocturne,” as well as Alec Wilder’s “I’ll Be Around.” V. 6 was led by French hornist/pianist and Jack Kerouac collaborator David Amram, along with tenor saxophonist George Barrow; both were members of Charles Mingus’ Jazz Workshop, and this date bears a highly modernist stamp.
Music Heard On This Episode
Miss D.D.
Mary Lou Williams — Black Christ of the Andes (Smithsonian Folkways, 1964)
