Night Lights Classic Jazz

Jazz From Storyville

Throughout the 1950s jazz promoter George Wein ran a Boston nightclub that showcased some of the music’s most notable performers. Read More »

Recent Shows

A Different Journey: Chico Hamilton In The 1960s

Chico Hamilton had gained fame with a 1950s quintet often defined as “chamber jazz,” but at the dawn of the 1960s he began to head in a new artistic direction.

Jazz is usually thought of as an album format, but once upon a time you could drop a coin into a slot and fill up a bar or restaurant with the sounds of artists such as Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, and Horace Silver spinning off a three-minute-long machine-operated platter.

Major Glenn Miller went missing over the English Channel in December 1944. For decades afterwards, much of his wartime orchestra's music went missing as well.

Twelve recordings that define one of the 20th century's greatest musicians, as we celebrate the Charlie Parker centennial on Night Lights.

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.

Pianist Lennie Tristano was a singular and charismatic modernist and mentor whose methods helped point the way for the rise of jazz education.

From the beginning of the 1930s to the mid-1940s, Louis Armstrong built on his early jazz mastery to become one of the most popular African-American entertainers in the world.

Listening to the Savory set is like dial-hopping on a swing-age radio,

Older stories »

Night Lights Blog

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

"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.

Explore some of the notable musicians who emerged from the 20th century Detroit jazz scene.

"Serious jazz musicians are into their music like it's a religion," says Sisto.

Doris Day in 1946 at New York City’s Aquarium nightclub.

A tribute to Doris Day

A career-spanning musical tribute from WFIU's afternoon jazz program "Just You And Me."

Jazz critic Nate Chinen talks about his recent book "Playing Changes: Jazz For The New Century," and we hear music from some of the artists discussed as well.

Some Night Lights recommendations for reading about one of jazz's greatest figures, as well as some programs featuring his music.

Chronicling a West Coast record label of the 1940s.

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Noon Edition

Jazz From Storyville

Recent Shows

A Different Journey: Chico Hamilton In The 1960s

Jukebox Jazz

Glenn Miller Goes To War With The Army Air Force Band

Ornithology: A Brief History Of Charlie Parker

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

Lennie Tristano: The Jazz Guru

Swing That Music: Louis Armstrong In The Big Band Era

Savoring The Savory Collection

Night Lights Blog

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

Detroit Jazz Artists On Night Lights

"No Time Like Now": Music And Conversation With Vibraphonist Dick Sisto

A Day For Doris Day

A Day For Doris Day

Playing Changes: Music And Conversation With Jazz Writer Nate Chinen

Read Him Madly: A Duke Ellington Bibliography

Mosaic Is Planning A Black and White Label Box Set

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