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.
Woody Herman called trumpeter Sonny Berman “one of the warmest soloists I ever had.” His sound was humorous, lyrical, and harmonically adventurous, with a penchant for bitonality. Berman died at the age of 21 in 1947, leaving behind only a few brilliant solos, most of them recorded with Herman’s big band.
In January of 1950, beleagured by the business woes that had afflicted so many other big bands around this time, Count Basie broke up the orchestra that he had been leading for 14 years. The small group that he formed in its wake featured younger, bop-oriented musicians such as…
This week on Night Lights it’s jazz from the late-1940s/early-1950s Boston scene, featuring alto saxophonist Charlie Mariano, pianist and arranger Nat Pierce, and baritone saxophonist Serge Chaloff. The Boston scene was a thriving one, enhanced in part by the presence of the Boston Conservatory of Music, which stood out for its acceptance of…
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