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Night Lights Classic Jazz Radio Program and Jazz Blog with David Brent Johnson

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.

August 25, 2008

The Horace Silver Songbook

Jazz pianist Horace Silver, a founding father of hardbop and soul jazz and one of the most renowned figures of the post-World War II jazz scene, turns 80 on September 2, 2008.

Many of his compositions, such as “Opus de Funk,” “The Preacher,” “Nica’s Dream,” and “Peace” have become jazz standards heard frequently today.

“The Horace Silver Songbook” features recordings by Art Blakey, Woody Herman, Art Farmer, Mark Murphy, Eddie Jefferson, Chet Baker, and Horace Silver himself, that exemplify the pianist’s catchy, soulful, and complex-yet-simple writing style, in celebration of his 80th birthday.

Read an early-1960s interview with Silver.

Watch Horace Silver in 1959 playing his composition “Senor Blues”:

Air date: August 30, 2008

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