Night Lights Classic Jazz
Jazz writer David Rosenthal called Jackie McLean and Lee Morgan "a frontline match made in hardbop heaven."
Bobby Hutcherson made his first appearance on a Blue Note date in 1963, playing on saxophonist Jackie McLean’s LP One Step Beyond.
Tony Williams was renowned as one of the great drummers of jazz. His late-1980s acoustic quintet highlights his compositional skills as well.
In 1969 guitarist Grant Green, who had been sidelined for several years by drug problems, returned to Blue Note Records and the jazz scene. The albums he made for Blue Note in this period reflected…
This week on Night Lights we offer a special tribute to the late alto saxophonist, Jackie McLean, who passed away on Friday, March 31, 2006. McLean came up in the Harlem jazz scene as a teenager in the late 1940s, befriending and playing with bebop progenitors Charlie Parker and Bud Powell. In the 1950s he worked and recorded with Charles Mingus, Miles Davis, and Art Blakey, in addition to making his own records…
In the early 1970s trumpeter Lee Morgan was striking out in new directions, incorporating elements of modality, free jazz, and fusion into his music. Tragically, his life and career were cut short when he was shot to death at the age of 33 by his longtime lover in a New York City jazz bar. We’ll hear music from Morgan’s final…
Pianist and composer Andrew Hill burst onto the jazz scene in the early 1960s with classic albums such as Black Fire and Point of Departure on the Blue Note label. Hill continued recording for the label throughout the 1960s, but many of the sessions went unreleased. After listening to the tapes last year with Mosaic producer Michael Cuscuna, Hill…
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.
In December 1962 Jackie McLean went to play a gig in Boston with a local rhythm section. That local section included a 17-year-old drummer named Tony Williams, who would return with McLean to New York a week later to begin a phenomenal career that would include a long stint with Miles Davis’ 1960s quintet. McLean also joined forces with Grachan Moncur, a trombonist who had played with both the Jazztet and Ray Charles…
David Brent Johnson hosts the weekly WFIU historical jazz program Night Lights and Afterglow as well. Learn more »
Johnny Hartman, Blossom Dearie, Dean Martin and others help us pay tribute to the Indiana songwriter.
Afterglow is WFIU's weekly program of jazz and American popular song hosted by David Brent Johnson.
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