Night Lights Classic Jazz
The early-1960s sounds of "The Sepia Sinatra," featured on Afterglow this week.
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.
Although Johnny Green is best remembered for composing significant standards, he actually spent the bulk of his career working in the movie industry.
Composer Johnny Green wrote the music for several songs that went on to become staples of the jazz-and-popular-song canon.
Jo Stafford, one of the last great vocalists from the "songbird" era of big band vocalists, passed away Wednesday at the age of 90.
Jazz vocalist Rene Marie recently sang the melody of "The Star-Spangled Banner" with lyrics from "the black national anthem."
Rifftides blogger and jazz eminence Doug Ramsey hipped readers several days ago to a Sunday, April 6 broadcast of Benny Carter’s rarely-heard “Kansas City Suite.” It’s at 1 p.m. PDT on KPLU.org…
One of the most expressive and original singers to come out of the post-World War II era, Betty Carter thrilled audiences with her daring vocal improvisations.
Performers who mixed boogie, swing, ballads and blues with sly, suggestive lyrics brought out deeper nuance than their risque hits sometimes seemed to suggest.
More from last Friday evening’s Afterglow program devoted to jazz and jazz-vocal recordings of the songs from Show Boat. Hour 2 features several very different versions of “Ol’ Man River,” including a contemporaneous …
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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