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.

Displaying all programs tagged with Bix Beiderbecke

Lost Legends of Indiana Jazz

Jazz AgeOn the heels of this past weekend’s Great Day in Indy photo homage to Indiana jazz musicians, here’s an article I wrote several years ago about some of the Hoosier state’s lesser-known but interesting artists:If you walk the streets of Indianapolis today, you’re bound to find scattered glimpses of the city’s past preserved amid the present. The architectural majesty of…

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Bix Beiderbecke: Never the Same Way Twice

Bix Beiderbecke“Bix is jazz’s Number One Saint,” critic Benny Green once wrote of cornet player Bix Beiderbecke (1903-1931). In 2003 I produced a one-hour WFIU centennial tribute to the man who, in the span of six years and more than 200 recordings, left a legacy that still echoes through jazz today, as well as a troubled personal tale that continues to provoke scrutiny. Richard Sudhalter, author of the Hoagy Carmichael biography

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“Jazz Impressions of Show Boat” Part 2

guitar choir Show BoatMore from last Friday evening’s Afterglow program devoted to jazz and jazz-vocal recordings of the songs from Show Boat. Hour 2 features several very different versions of “Ol’ Man River,” including a contemporaneous …

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