Night Lights Classic Jazz
An article in the Sunday, November 9 New York Times about the history of African-American visitors to the White House came with a jazz twist at the end involving Sarah Vaughan. Vaughan performed at the White House in 1964 as part of a state dinner hosted by president Lyndon B. Johnson for the prime minister of Japan. In Leslie Gourse’s Vaughan biography pianist Bob James described the singer’s nervousness before her appearance in the East Room, an area with an intimacy that James compared to “working in a living room.”
Last Friday evening’s Afterglow program, featuring jazz and jazz-vocal interpretations of Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein’s songs for the musical Show Boat, is now available for online listening…
The Monterey Jazz Festival is coming up on its 50th anniversary, and I’m assuming that’s why a series of CDs featuring performances by Thelonious Monk, Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Joe Henderson, Sarah Vaughan, and others is coming out next week. I’m listening today to a highlights promo…
Carter wrote jazz standards, mastered two instruments, opened doors for black composers in Hollywood, and served as a mentor to many young jazz musicians.
The very cool Jazz Icons DVD series has announced the release of seven more titles, including concerts by Duke Ellington, John Coltrane, Sarah Vaughan, Dexter Gordon, Wes Montgomery, Dave Brubeck, and Charles Mingus.
On this edition of Night Lights it’s “Java Jive: Jazz Coffee Songs,” a caffeinated brew of music to help keep your weekend warm. The program includes classics such as Sarah Vaughan’s “Black Coffee” (as well as Sonny Criss’ mid-1960s instrumental version) and obscurities such as the Larks’ “Coffee, Cigarettes and Tears,” in addition to Jeri Southern’s “Coffee, Cigarettes and Memories”…
Trumpeter Freddie Webster, who influenced both Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie, is one of the great lost-legend stories of jazz.
David Brent Johnson hosts the weekly WFIU historical jazz program Night Lights and Afterglow as well. Learn more »
In 1964 Dean Martin recorded a laidback martini-at-the-fireside album that included the original version of a song that would soon become his signature tune.
Afterglow is WFIU's weekly program of jazz and American popular song hosted by David Brent Johnson.
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