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.

Jivin’ With the DJs: Jazz Tributes

JazzboIn the 1940s and 1950s the jazz format emerged on radio, and with it a number of colorful, laidback on-air personalities who helped disseminate the new sounds of bebop and early R & B. In response, musicians sometimes wrote and recorded tributes to these DJs. In this program, inspired by the passing of longtime DJ great Oscar Treadwell, we’ll hear Charlie Parker’s “An Oscar for Treadwell,” Allen Eager’s “All Night, All Frantic” (for the legendary Symphony Sid Torin), Illinois Jacquet’s “Jivin’ With Jack the Bellboy,” Mary Lou Williams’ “In the Purple Grotto” (for Al “Jazzbo” Collins, who pretended to broadcast from a cool, purple-colored chamber), and many more. Note to south-central Indiana listeners: the Bloomington street Treadwell Lane is named after the jazz DJ!

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