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.
For decades Harlem was the capital of African-American culture in the United States, and it inspired all sorts of musical tributes, from celebratory and sensationalistic swing songs to extended concert works by James P. Johnson, Benny Carter and Duke Ellington. “Portraits of Ellington” includes rare broadcast excerpts of Johnson’s “Harlem Symphony,” Ellington’s 1963 recording of his “Harlem” suite with the Paris Symphony Orchestra, an interview with jazz scholar John Howland, and much more.
Duke Ellington, Oliver Nelson, John Carter, and Wynton Marsalis all undertook a weighty artistic task–to represent the historical journey of African-Americans in music. Historian Michael McGerr joins the program as we play music from all four composers’ extended works and talk about their place in jazz history.
Companion pieces for this week’s “Jazz Impressions of Brubeck” program: a biographical and musical portrait of Voice of America jazz DJ Willis Conover, and an in-depth look at the U.S. State Department’s sponsorship of international jazz tours during the Cold War era.
Labor Day meets the Great American Songbook, as Afterglow takes a look at satirical and political protest music of the 1930s and 40s, performed by Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Billie Holiday and others.
Jazz artists have occasionally revisited albums years or decades after their original release, sometimes rerecording them in their entirety. This show features second-time-around treatments from vocalist Helen Merrill and arranger Gil Evans, saxophonist Gerry Mulligan, trombonist Curtis Fuller, pianist Mal Waldron, Duke Ellington and June Christy.
Jazz criticism first emerged in the 1930s and has played a role not only in how the music’s been heard, but sometimes in the way it’s been made. We’ll hear some of the music that’s inspired the most debate, and we’ll also talk with John Gennari, author of a recent history of jazz criticism, BLOWIN’ HOT AND COOL.
On Afterglow this week, a festive and reflective tribute to Independence Day with music from Duke Ellington, Nat King Cole, Peggy Lee, Paul Desmond 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.
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