Night Lights is a weekly one-hour radio program of classic jazz hosted by David Brent Johnson and produced by WFIU Public Radio. Hundreds of archived programs online at http;//wfiu.org/nightlight
Where to Listen
Night Lights is heard on radio stations around the world.
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About the Host
For the past five years David Brent Johnson has guest-hosted for Joe Bourne on WFIU’s Just You and Me, as well as hosting The Big Bands and producing WFIU documentaries about 1920s jazz legend Bix Beiderbecke and Duke Ellington’s 1941 civil-rights musical Jump for Joy.
In 2004 he began the weekly WFIU historical jazz program Night Lights, and now hosts Afterglow as well. Continue Reading »
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Night Lights Classic Jazz Very good NPR piece this evening on the new Thelonious Monk biography. I interviewed its author, Robin Kelley, recently for a two-part Night Lights show on Monk that will air in February:
www.npr.org
Robin D.G. Kelley spent 14 years on a new book, which some are calling the definitive work on a jazz legend. In Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original, he portrays the great pianist as a trained musician, a psychiatric case and a father.
Night Lights Classic Jazz A different jazz twist on the New Year--this week's Night Lights show up for online listening:
indianapublicmedia.org
Jazz and recovery meet on two unique early-1960s albums made by guitarist Joe Pass and pianist Elmo Hope. Pass' 1961 Pacific Jazz LP Sounds of Synanon was his debut as a leader; although he'd begun to ...
Night Lights Classic Jazz Baby, it's cold out there! Warm yourself by "The Fireside Afterglow":
indianapublicmedia.org
“The Fireside Afterglow” provides a laidback seasonal theme for the last days of December, featuring music that evokes love, reflection, peace, and the warm moods of winter.
Night Lights Classic Jazz Sunday listening: Kenny Dorham, THE FLAMBOYAN, QUEENS 1963 (w/Joe Henderson...new release of live nightclub broadcast); Sarah Vaughan & Billy Eckstine, THE IRVING BERLIN SONGBOOK; Brian Eno, ANOTHER GREEN WORLD; Don Patterson/Booker Ervin, LEGENDS OF ACID JAZZ.
Night Lights Classic Jazz A non-jazz, sad holiday weekend story from the indie pop-rock world--R.E.M. singer Michael Stipe remembers friend and fellow artist Vic Chesnutt, who passed away on Christmas Day at the age of 45:
www.npr.org
Singer-songwriter Vic Chesnutt has died at the age of 45. The performer, based in Athens, Ga., lost the use of his legs following an auto accident in 1983. The accident and his ongoing bouts with depression ...
Night Lights Classic Jazz A Night Lights archival holiday program for you--merry Christmas to all w/music from Dexter Gordon, Frank Sinatra & more on "The Night Before Christmas":
indianapublicmedia.org
Our annual invocation of holiday jazz this year calls upon the talents of Fats Navarro (”A Bebop Carol”), hipster vocalist Babs Gonzales, tenor saxophonist Gene Ammons, trumpeter Donald Byrd, guitarist Joe Pass, and many other propagators of classic jazz, blowing joyous tidings unto you all. ...
Night Lights Classic Jazz
WBEZ-Chicago
(home of "This American Life") is using an excerpt from the Night
Lights Guaraldi program to kick off their holiday special "Holidays
Unwrapped: Audio Gifts From WBEZ" on Christmas Eve at noon and again
Christmas morning at 9 a.m. I'll post a link to their site later on--here's the original Night Lights show:
indianapublicmedia.org
Vince Guaraldi's music is loved by millions of people around the world—forever associated with the TV version of a popular comic strip. Who was the man behind that music? Jazz critic Doug Ramsey, Peanuts ...
Night Lights Classic Jazz This week's Night Lights show up for online listening:
indianapublicmedia.org
Night Lights' annual holiday tribute celebrates the season with plenty of cool-Yule jazz from Chet Baker, Bob Brookmeyer, John Coltrane, Shorty Rogers and more, including poet Sascha Feinstein's reading of his Christmas Eve poem about the legendary 1954 Thelonious Monk-Miles Davis studio encounter.
Night Lights Classic Jazz The first of several holiday show posts this week--this one from my jazz/ballads/American popular song program "Afterglow", with Kay Starr, Julie London, Duke Ellington, Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole and more--a two-hour Yuletide extravaganza:
indianapublicmedia.org
Afterglow kicks off its celebration of the season.
Night Lights Classic Jazz An 80th birthday (Dec. 19) tribute to Bob Brookmeyer this week on Night Lights--now up for online listening. Lots of great 1950s/early 1960s cool/West Coast/big band jazz featuring Mr. Brookmeyer as soloist and arranger in the company of Stan Getz, Gerry Mulligan and others:
indianapublicmedia.org
Bob Brookmeyer emerged in the 1950s as a trombonist, composer and arranger steeped in both traditional and modern jazz. His musical alliances with Stan Getz, Gerry Mulligan and Jimmy Giuffre helped him ...
Night Lights Classic Jazz Just in time for "A Charlie Brown Christmas" tonight on ABC--this week's Night Lights show is up for online listening, with lots of Vince Guaraldi music and interviews with Peanuts producer Lee Mendelson, Guaraldi's son David, jazz critic Doug Ramsey and more about the man behind the Peanuts music and his jazz legacy:
indianapublicmedia.org
Vince Guaraldi's music is loved by millions of people around the world—forever associated with the TV version of a popular comic strip. Who was the man behind that music? Jazz critic Doug Ramsey, Peanuts ...
Night Lights Classic Jazz Mosaic Records has a nice little compendium of jazz videos up for browsing:
www.jazzvideocafe.com
McCoy is recognized as the innovator of a distinctive approach to the piano, but he is also the composer of a canon of exceptional jazz tunes.
Night Lights Classic Jazz Sunday listening: Stan Getz/Bob Brookmeyer, AT THE SHRINE (get yer West Coast cool right here); Herbie Nichols, THE ART OF HERBIE NICHOLS (inspired by the new Mark Miller bio); Duke Ellington, TREASURY SHOWS V. 13 (Duke's great 1945 band on the radio); Von Freeman, VONKSI SPEAKS (we should all wish to play or do ANYTHING like this guy does it in his 80s).
Night Lights Classic Jazz New Night Lights up for online listening:
indianapublicmedia.org
For the past 50 years pianist, composer and bandleader Clare Fischer has quietly pursued one of the most interesting careers in jazz, exploring Latin, bossa nova, and other genres. Extension: Clare Fischer ...
Night Lights Classic Jazz Singer Sheila Jordan on NPR's Piano Jazz:
www.npr.org
Sheila Jordan's singing style lights up Piano Jazz with guest host Jon Weber. Jordan reflects on her early inspirations in Detroit and chasing the great Charlie Parker, who later became a close friend. ...
