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.
Eric Dolphy, a highly-skilled musician who played alto sax, bass clarinet, and flute, created a bracing, unique sound forged in both bop and the avant-garde. His last year was one of his greatest, as he worked with pianist Andrew Hill and bassist Charles Mingus, and recorded an album for Blue Note that many consider to be his masterpiece.
In this program we explore the sounds of the mid-20th-century Los Angeles jazz scene with historian Steve Isoardi. Jam sessions, bebop, r and b, big bands, visits from Hollywood celebrities–as the center of African-American culture in L.A., Central Avenue had it all.
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.
In the mid-1950s Cafe Bohemia was one of the most happening jazz clubs in New York City—a Greenwich Village club that caught the vibe of Manhattan’s thriving art and intellectual scene. Those who checked it out might find Charles Mingus, Art Blakey, or Miles Davis either playing or sitting in the crowd.
Alto saxophonist Charles McPherson spent much of his early career under the spell of jazz great Charlie Parker–but he fired the Parker sound with his own intense energy and expressive skills.
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.
Juneteenth, the African-American holiday celebrating the end of slavery, has a long tradition of food, games, music and prayer. Our jazz tribute includes musical tributes to freedom from Duke Ellington, Max Roach, Carmen McRae, and John Coltrane, as well as Louis Jordan’s homage to the holiday itself, and some odes to African-American athletes.
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.
Pianist Billy Taylor’s website has posted audio of a half-hour set at Boston’s Storyville club in 1951, featuring Charles Mingus on bass and Marquis Foster on drums, with Nat Hentoff doing between-song stage announcements. The sound is crystal-clear by 1951 radio-broadcast standards, with…
In Part 3 of our interview with saxophonist John Handy, he discusses his troubled relationship with his first record label, his recording of “Alice in Wonderland” with Charles Mingus, why trumpeter Richard Williams didn’t appear on his second album, his move back to California in the early 1960s, his Freedom Band civil-rights project, and the formation of…
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