Subscribe to theNew Stations for Night Lights, another Duke Ellington Mosaic box, and Marc Myers’ interview with Bud Shank
Original Airdate: April 3rd, 2008
*Several radio stations around the country are adding Night Lights to their weekly lineup. KMHD-Portland, Oregon will be carrying the program at 8 p.m. PDT on Monday evenings. Beginning May 10, KOSU-Oklahoma Public Radio will broadcast Night Lights on Saturday evenings at 11 p.m. CDT. And KMBH/KHID-McAllen and Brownsville, Texas will soon
Based on the true story of accused murderess Barbara Graham, the 1958 movie I Want to Live! employed a jazz soundtrack written by Johnny Mandel and performed by such jazz stalwarts as Gerry Mulligan, Bud Shank and Art Farmer (who appeared in the movie’s opening scenes), along with Frank Rosolino, Jack Sheldon, and Shelly Manne. Susan Hayward
In the early 1950s musicians Roy Harte and Harry Babasin, eager to document the ascending West Coast jazz scene, started a Los Angeles label called 
In 1957 a young Robert Altman (future director of Nashville, MASH, and The Player) co-directed a documentary about 
In 1949 former Stan Kenton bassist 
Baritone singer Johnny Holiday performed with some big bands in the 1940s (including a brief stint filling in for Johnny Desmond in the 1945 edition of the Glenn Miller Orchestra) and went on to release several albums in the 1950s, two of them made with West Coast jazz musicians, that received good notices but failed to sell well. Holiday spent the next few…
Several recent Pacific Jazz re-issues of Chet Baker are the focus of this edition of Night Lights, including Chet Baker Ensemble, Chet Baker Sextet, and Chet Baker Sings and Plays. These recordings were all done between 1953 and 1955, when Baker’s star was ascending and he was relatively untroubled by…
