Posted in Shows on Jul 7th, 2008
Last year Night Lights began an annual Bastille Day-week salute to the convergence of all things French and jazz with Paris Noir, a program about post-World War II expatriate African-American musicians in France. This year our tribute show focuses on jazz interpretations of the many songs that have been written about the City of Light.
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Posted in Jazz Notes on Apr 12th, 2008
Word is that we’ll probably see the following reissues from Nessa Records in several months: Roscoe Mitchell’s Nonaah (with bonus material), Charles Tyler’s Saga of the Outlaws, and…
Posted in Jazz Notes on Feb 12th, 2008
A couple of weeks ago Bernard Gordillo, who writes the WFIU early-music show Harmonia, mentioned a recent interest in Pannonica de Koenigswarter, also known as Nica, the Jazz Baroness, or simply the Baroness. The Baroness was a sort of jazz patron, a woman well-liked by the jazz musicians she befriended on the mid-20th-century New York bebop scene; she counted Charlie Parker and Thelonious Monk among her closest companions from that community. As a wealthy white woman spending time…
Posted in Jazz Notes on Dec 14th, 2007
Word from the Jazz Programmer Listserv that alto saxophonist Frank Morgan has passed away:
We’ve just been notified that Frank Morgan passed away peacefully from kidney failure this Friday morning, near his family and friends in his hometown of Minneapolis. He had just completed a successful European tour, even though he was worried about his health. A memorial gathering is planned in his longtime home town of Taos, New Mexico, on what would have been
his 74th, birthday, December 23.…
Posted in Jazz Notes on Nov 28th, 2007
There are several confirmed reports from yesterday evening and this morning that baritone saxophonist Cecil Payne, an unsung hero of the bebop era, has passed away:
Posted in Shows on Oct 8th, 2007
Max Roach was a revolutionary bebop drummer, a leader of the classic Clifford Brown-Sonny Rollins hardbop quintet, a social activist, jazz educator and intellectual, a forerunner of Do-It-Yourself recording, and an explorer of the avant-garde…among other things. Max Roach contained multitudes, and his death in August of 2007 reverberated across the jazz world as if it were a long solo being played on a cosmic drumset. This program, an audio snapshot of his career on record, features his work with pianists Herbie Nichols and Bud Powell, his hardbop configurations with Clifford Brown and Sonny Rollins…
Posted in Shows on Sep 3rd, 2007
Woody Herman called trumpeter Sonny Berman “one of the warmest soloists I ever had.” His sound was humorous, lyrical, and harmonically adventurous, with a penchant for bitonality. Berman died at the age of 21 in 1947, leaving behind only a few brilliant solos, most of them recorded with Herman’s big band. We’ll hear him on tracks such as “Your Father’s Mustache,” “Sidewalks of Cuba,” “Pam,” and a V-disc recording of…
Posted in Jazz Notes on Aug 29th, 2007
Let us now praise famous avises: Charlie Parker, born August 29, 1920. Parker’s been in the air a lot lately, what with the death of his bebop compatriot Max Roach. Like Billie Holiday, his art is still somehow strong enough to defy all of the categorization and commodification that’s been heaped onto it. A hipster saint he may be, but burn your candles for the hard grace of his music. Suggested Night Lights listening: our August 2005 At the Birth of Bop program…
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