Night Lights Classic Jazz
Jazz aficionados generally have little use for various-artist anthologies. They’re seen as gateway collections for beginners, whereas hardcore veteran listeners tend to want all-inclusive single-artist monoliths replete with alternate takes, unissued masters, etc. (Sony/Legacy’s Miles Davis series is an excellent example–even though the later electric boxes have drawn in some younger, non-aficionado buyers.) Exceptions are made, of course–particularly for comprehensive label overviews like Mosaic Records’ Commodore trilogy and sets that document lesser-known but important milieus or periods, such as the Wildflowers collection that captures the mid-1970s New York loft scene.
William Claxton, whose photos of jazz artists became iconic talismans of the music they played, passed away on Saturday at the age of 80.
Two of longtime bandleader Gerald Wilson's finest orchestras--his progressive, modernistic 1940s outfit and his 1960s West Coast band.
Jimmy Giuffre--a clarinetist, saxophonist, and composer-arranger has passed away at the age of 86.
Saxophonist Phil Urso passed away yesterday at the age of 82.
Pete Candoli, a trumpeter whose Superman-caped solos with the Woody Herman orchestra captured the exuberance of the swing era, has passed away at the age of 84.
We'll hear a clip from trumpeter Shorty Rogers' appearance on the too-hip-to-last early-1960s TV show, Jazz Scene USA.
Based on the true story of accused murderess Barbara Graham, the 1958 movie I Want to Live! employed a jazz soundtrack written by Johnny Mandel.
In the early 1950s musicians Roy Harte and Harry Babasin, eager to document the ascending West Coast jazz scene, started a Los Angeles label called Nocturne Records. Babasin and Harte said they wanted to “broaden the nation’s views of our activities out here in Hollywood…
In 1957 a young Robert Altman (future director of Nashville, MASH, and The Player) co-directed a documentary about James Dean, with a soundtrack written by Leith Stevens (who also scored The Wild One…
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.
Copyright © 2013, The Trustees of Indiana University | Copyright Complaints
1229 East Seventh Street, Bloomington, Indiana 47405
