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.
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.
Wayne Shorter, one of the great tenor saxophonists and composers of the modern jazz era, turns 75 on August 25. An enigmatic and searching musician and personality, Shorter was once labeled by jazz critic Larry Kart as “one of the most dangerous players to ever pick up a horn–a man whose solos were described by various critics as ‘quietly maniacal’ and ‘clinically precise,’ full of ‘abrupt changes of mood’ and ‘wild satanic humor.’”
Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami on his introduction to jazz and what it meant to him. (If you’re interested in jazz and post-WWII Japan, check out…
This week on Night Lights I’ll be playing jazz from a new Miles Davis concert release–MONTEREY ‘63, featuring the then-new rhythm section of Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, and Tony Williams…along with Mosaic Records reissues of classic hardbop J.J. Johnson/Kai Winding and Art Blakey albums… the never-before-released Ella Fitzgerald LOVE LETTERS, featuring the singer in small-group settings, with big bands, and with the London Symphony Orchestra…and much, much more. And I’ll be broadcasting live, because this is the beginning of…
Tenor saxophonist John Gilmore, who influenced John Coltrane and helped to pioneer the challenging techniques of 1960s avant-garde saxophone, spent most of his career with Sun Ra and his Arkestra, recording outside of Sun Ra’s band on only…
Sometimes when a great jazz musician dies, another jazz musician writes a musical tribute. On this Memorial Day weekend edition of Night Lights we’ll hear elegies for Charlie Parker, Lester Young, Sonny Clark, Clifford Brown, Billie Holiday and more, from artists such as Lennie Tristano, Bill Evans…
In the 1950s, French film directors turned to American musicians such as Miles Davis and Art Blakey, and French musicians such as Barney Wilen and Martial Solal, to score the moody, cutting-edge movies that they were making. We’ll hear music from Davis’ soundtrack for the Louis Malle film Elevator to the Gallows and Solal’s for Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless, in addition to music from…
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