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.
Night Lights’ annual holiday tribute celebrates the season with plenty of cool-Yule jazz from Chet Baker, Bob Brookmeyer, John Coltrane, Shorty Rogers and more, including poet Sascha Feinstein’s reading of his “Christmas Eve” poem about the legendary 1954 Thelonious Monk-Miles Davis studio encounter.
Bill Evans is one of the most influential pianists in jazz history, renowned for his lyrically seductive style. But at the beginning of his career he had a different sound, full of rhythmic drive and the bop influences of his early role models. “Very Early: Bill Evans 1956-58″ features his recordings with George Russell, Charles Mingus and more.
You can now become a fan of Night Lights on Facebook. If you’re just discovering the program through Facebook, here are some shows you might want to check out.
After jazz journalist Gene Lees heard Bill Evans for the first time, he told the pianist that his recordings “sounded like love letters written to the world from some prison of the heart.” Lees was just one of many to feel such an emotional connection with Evans’ playing, which inspired a cult-like following that continues to this day. The group that he formed in 1959 with bassist Scott LaFaro and drummer Paul Motian helped set the template for the modern jazz trio, and the albums they made–particularly the live Waltz for Debby and Sunday at the Village Vanguard–have become jazz classics. But this group came to an abrupt end shortly after those albums were recorded, when…
1959 saw an unprecedented spate of jazz masterpieces. Among the albums released or recorded that year were Miles Davis’ modal-hip Kind of Blue, Dave Brubeck’s blockbuster Time Out, John Coltrane’s leap forward Giant Steps, Ornette Coleman’s avant-garde salvo The Shape of Jazz to Come, and Charles Mingus’ revolutionary-in-the-tradition Mingus Ah Um.
The Jazz Icons series has been earning well-deserved raves from jazz fans around the world for its two rounds of live concert releases on DVD, featuring compelling and historical performances from the likes of Dexter Gordon, John Coltrane, Charles Mingus, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk…you get the picture. (And the sound!) A third wave of titles has been announced–we’ll be seeing the following come September…
In the conclusion of our four-part interview with saxophonist John Handy, he discusses why his quintet broke up, playing Bartok with classical pianist Leonid Hambro, a forthcoming Mosaic Records collection of previously-unreleased 1960s recordings, his experiences as a jazz educator, and his memories of Monterey and the mid-1960s rock scene. To hear some of Handy’s music from the 1960s, check out Handy On the Horn…
A number of radio stations around the country have picked up the Night Lights show Dear Martin: Jazz Tributes to Martin Luther King Jr. Station links and air dates follow:KSJD-Cortez, Colorado: Monday, Jan. 21 at 1 p.m…
Most jazz lovers have favorite albums that they turn to for certain moods, times, or occasions–or just out of habit, because over the years that particular LP or CD has created some pleasantly well-worn grooves in one’s listening state of mind. Such albums for me include Bud Powell’s The Genius Of, John Coltrane’s Complete Village Vanguard Recordings, and Bill Evans’…
Alto saxophonist Lee Konitz is a longtime master of melodic improvisation who’s played a part in some of jazz’s most momentous acts–the Claude Thornhill big band and the Miles Davis Birth of the Cool nonet in the late 1940s, and the Lennie Tristano groups of the 1950s and early 1960s. After working in Stan Kenton’s orchestra and making some albums for Atlantic, Konitz recorded a series of LPs as a leader in the late 1950s for the Verve label…
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