Night Lights Classic Jazz
This week on Night Lights we pay tribute to the pianist and singer who passed away in 2007 at the age of 94. A product of the thriving mid-20th century Central Avenue Los Angeles scene, in the late 1940s Lutcher scored a series of hits such as “Hurry On Down” and “Fine Brown Frame” that blended jazz, pop, blues and R & B in a way that made her one of the era’s first crossover stars.
A few months ago Mosaic Records confirmed a forthcoming Ahmad Jamal box-set, covering the pianist’s trio recordings from the late 1950s and early 1960s, currently projected for a March or April 2009 release. Some more details have emerged now on the box’s contents (supposedly 9 CDs). It will contain the following Argo and Chess-label albums:
Richard Twardzik, the rather haunted-looking pianist who was a mainstay of the Boston jazz scene in the early 1950s, recorded only once as a leader before dying at the age of 24 during a European tour with Chet Baker. His quirky, fluid style, influenced by Bud Powell and Art Tatum and sprinkled with touches of dissonance and classical music, has led some to compare him to fellow 1950s iconoclasts Thelonious Monk and Herbie Nichols. Now Bouncin’ With Bartok, a long-awaited study of pianist’s life and recordings written by Jack Chambers…
Jazz pianist Ronnie Mathews has passed away at the age of 72 after a battle with pancreatic cancer.
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…
Organissimo poster Bluerein reports that Mosaic Records will issue an Oscar Peterson Verve trio set later this year. The set will contain Peterson’s trio recordings made between 1951 and 1953 with Barney Kessel on guitar–no word yet on how many CDs it will contain. Other forthcoming sets this year…
Mosaic Records has reportedly long been trying to put together some kind of collection featuring pianist Ahmad Jamal's influential 1950s trio.
Pianist Frank Kimbrough, who co-founded the Herbie Nichols Project (he can be heard playing and speaking on the Night Lights program Strange City: the Secret Music of Herbie Nichols) will be on the radio twice in the next week: Thursday, Jan. 17 from 11:20-noon EST on WAMC-Albany (Performance Place With Michael Eck) and next Tuesday…
As expected, many more Oscar Peterson articles and tributes have appeared in the past two days. Here are a few of them:Lots of love and spirited dissension in this Organissimo discussion…
Canadian pianist Oscar Peterson has passed away at the age of 82.
David Brent Johnson hosts the weekly WFIU historical jazz program Night Lights and Afterglow as well. Learn more »
Major Glenn Miller went missing over the English Channel in December 1944. For decades afterwards, much of his wartime orchestra's music went missing as well.
Afterglow is WFIU's weekly program of jazz and American popular song hosted by David Brent Johnson.
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