Night Lights Classic Jazz

Big Band Bird: Charlie Parker With The Big Bands

We think of Charlie Parker as a small-group bebop saxophonist, but he came out of the swing era. What did he sound like in a big-band setting? Read More »

Recent Shows

1961: New Jazz Frontier

It was 1961, and America had a new, young president...the Cold War turned up a notch…and jazz continued to evolve in ear-opening ways.

As television rocketed into the entertainment culture of mid-20th-century America, musicians and composers, many of them with jazz backgrounds, were called upon to write themes and cues for the wide variety of programs that populated the airwaves.

A decade that saw female artists making further inroads into the male-dominated world of jazz.

In the late 1950s a former DJ and a journalist realized a dream that would become one of the longest-running live jazz events in the world-a weekend-long outdoor series of concerts in a beautiful central California coastal setting featuring some of the music’s greatest artists.

In 1945 Lester Young emerged at the age of 36 from a traumatic time in the Army to renew his career as one of jazz’s most influential and loved saxophonists.

At the beginning of the 1960s jazz pianist and theorist George Russsell teamed up with trombonist and jazz educator David Baker and other Indiana jazz musicians to form one of the era’s most exciting and innovative groups.

Mobley’s so-called “round sound” and Morgan’s kinetic attack made for a dynamic combination on the dozen-and-a-half studio and live sessions where they appear together.

A small Bowery bar where John Coltrane came into his own with Thelonious Monk, Ornette Coleman stunned the jazz world with his quartet, and writers, painters, musicians and others formed an at-home underground community. Former Five Spot regulars David Amram and author Dan Wakefield join us.

Older stories »

Night Lights Blog

A Family Tribute To Janiece Jaffe

Two of the late singer's children stopped by WFIU to discuss their mother's life and music.

A musical and conversational remembrance of Bloomington singer Janiece Jaffe, who passed away on November 23, 2022 at 64. Jaffe friends and collaborators Dave Bruker, Peter Lerner, and David Miller discuss her life and legacy, and we hear some of Jaffe's concert and studio recordings as well.

More classic jazz sets on the way from Mosaic Records.

Michael Bourne became a global name in the jazz community after starting his on-air job at WBGO-Newark at the end of 1984. This tribute celebrates his beginnings at WFIU-Bloomington, Indiana in the 1970s and early 80s, with remembrances from friends and fans, interview excerpts, and a rollicking 1976 performance at Bloomington's Bluebird nightclub with Michael on lead vocals.

... OK, that should be "interview." A virtual conversation, using a very analog-era practice, in which I chat with the Duke about his work on the film score for ANATOMY OF A MURDER.

John Coltrane A Love Supreme Live In Seattle

Night Lights' annual roundup of notable archival releases and reissues.

Indiana University jazz studies head Tom Walsh and vocalists Rachel Caswell and Janiece Jaffe joined David Brent Johnson on WFIU's "Just You And Me" to discuss Dominic Spera, the trumpeter and former IU jazz educator who passed away on Saturday, October 23 at the age of 89. Spera's music is featured as well.

"The great chain of witnesses": a poem by Betsy Sholl in the new issue of Brilliant Corners drew its inspiration in part from a Night Lights show.

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Noon Edition

Big Band Bird: Charlie Parker With The Big Bands

Recent Shows

1961: New Jazz Frontier

Heard It On The TV: Jazz Takes On Television Themes

Jazz Women Of The 1980s

Jazz From Monterey: 1958, The Birth Of A Festival

Postwar Prez: Lester Young 1945-1950

When Russell Met Baker: The George Russell-David Baker Sextet

Mob-Lee: Lee Morgan And Hank Mobley

Making A New Kind Of Scene: New York City's Five Spot

Night Lights Blog

A Family Tribute To Janiece Jaffe

A Tribute To Janiece Jaffe 1958-2022

New And Forthcoming From Mosaic: Freddie Hubbard, Sonny Clark, Jazz At The Philharmonic

Anon, Anon: Michael Bourne, 1946-2022

My Interview With Duke Ellington

Best Historical Releases 2021

A Tribute To Dominic Spera

"Thomas Merton Experiments with Meditations on Jazz": A Poem And A Night Lights Program

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