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.
George Russell, the composer, theorist and pianist who passed away Monday night at the age of 86, helped shape the sound of jazz as we know it today. If there was a “birth of the cool” at the end of the 1940s, Russell pointed the way to the “birth of the modal” that came at the end of the 1950s.
The 1940s and 50s Indianapolis jazz scene produced several musicians who would go on to careers of international note—trombonist J.J. Johnson, trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, guitarist Wes Montgomery, and trombonist/cellist and jazz educator David Baker. An unsung hero of that scene passed away in February 2009—tenor saxophonist David Young, 75 at the time of his death. Young was a jazz artist unknown to the general public, but much respected and loved among members of the Indiana jazz community—and admired by a small circle of jazz aficionados around the globe for his contributions to pianist George Russell’s albums of the early 1960s.
I’m currently working on a Night Lights program about David Young, the Indianapolis-based tenor saxophonist who passed away in February. The Night Lights show will include an unreleased recording of Young and cohort David Baker blowing long and hard at the Topper club in Indianapolis (circa late-1950s), as well as a Young solo with Mercer Ellington’s Duke-legacy orchestra in the late 1970s.
Tenor saxophonist David Young, who was an integral part of the David-Baker-led Indianapolis hardbop group absorbed by George Russell at the beginning of the 1960s, passed away early this Friday morning. Born in Indianapolis in 1933, he was a part of the amazing 1950s Indiana Avenue generation that included Baker, Freddie Hubbard, and Wes Montgomery.
Trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, who died on Monday at the age of 70, was one of Indiana’s true jazz giants, rubbing historical shoulders with the likes of J.J. Johnson, Wes Montgomery, and Hoagy Carmichael. On Tuesday, December 30, longtime Hubbard friend and musical colleague David Baker stopped by the studio while I was guest-hosting WFIU’s Just You and Me and offered some remembrances and reflections during our 90-minute Hubbard tribute. He also brought along a rare live recording of the teenaged Hubbard’s 1957 Indianapolis group the Jazz Contemporaries, which included saxophonist James Spaulding and bassist Larry Ridley. Listen to the Just You and Me tribute to Freddie Hubbard with special guest David Baker, including classic Hubbard sides as a leader and as a sideman with Tina Brooks, Ornette Coleman and others.
Inspired by Art Kane’s legendary 1958 Great Day in Harlem photo of jazz musicians, jazz photographer Mark Sheldon is planning an Indianapolis version, A Great Day in Indy, that will offer visual homage to the city’s jazz legacy. Details follow in the press release that Mark’s sent out…
The inspiration came from a late-night party, a convergence of Hollywood glamour and early civil-rights activism with one of America’s greatest jazz orchestras. In the summer of 1941, as Americans warily regarded a world war that seemed to be edging ever closer to their shores, Duke Ellington staged an all-black musical with a message.
Trumpeter Don Ellis is best-known today for the big bands he led during the late 1960s and early 1970s that made use of odd time signatures, but he made his first impact on the jazz world at the beginning of the 1960s, leading several progressive small-group dates that drew both praise and criticism from the jazz media.
Just in time for Christmas: Mosaic Records has discographical information and audio clips up for their forthcoming Quincy Jones and Lionel Hampton sets, out later this month. The Hampton includes the vibraphonist’s remarkable late-1930s small-group dates…
One of the great things about working at WFIU is having David Baker stop by occasionally for appearances on Joe Bourne’s weekday afternoon program “Just You and Me”. As busy as he is, he’s always been incredibly generous with his time, and I’m always grateful for any chance to speak with him. He’s full of stories, insights, and good will; a few minutes in his presence and you’ll understand why he’s been such a successful jazz educator.David came in today to chat about the inauguration concert for Indiana University president Michael McRobbie that he’ll be conducting Sunday night…
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