Posted in Shows on Nov 17th, 2008
This week on Night Lights it’s “Songs of Peace,” in anticipation of the coming holidays. We’ll hear instrumental themes using “Peace” as a title from John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, and Horace Silver, as well as Louis Armstrong’s 1970 take on John Lennon’s “Give Peace a Chance”…
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Posted in Jazz Notes on Aug 30th, 2008
WDCB, one of two stations in the Chicago area that continue to broadcast jazz, is airing three Night Lights programs in a row on Labor Day Monday evening, from 7 to 10 p.m. Central Time–Cats Who Swing and Sing: Women Singer-Pianists of the 1940s and 50s, 1959: Jazz’s Vintage Year, and Porgy and Bess: the 1950s Jazz Revival.
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Posted in Shows on Aug 25th, 2008
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.
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Posted in Jazz Notes on Aug 20th, 2008
Three significant jazz masters will be celebrating milestone birthdays in the next several weeks. On August 25, tenor saxophonist Wayne Shorter turns 75. On September 2, pianist Horace Silver marks 80 years. And on September 4, bandleader Gerald Wilson–perhaps the last great living link to the swing era–sees in his 90th birthday. I have Night Lights programs in store for all three artists, and I’m sure there will be other jazz-radio tributes around the country.
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Posted in Shows on Apr 15th, 2006
This Easter weekend on Night Lights it’s “Songs of Peace.” We’ll hear instrumental themes using “Peace” as a title from John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, and Horace Silver, as well as Louis Armstrong’s 1970 take on John Lennon’s “Give Peace a Chance,” Bill Evans’ improvisation on Leonard Bernstein’s “Some Other Time” that came to be known as “Peace Piece,” Mahalia Jackson…
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Posted in Shows on Jan 28th, 2006
This week on Night Lights it’s “Piano Noir: Ran Blake”. Pianist and composer Ran Blake has earned an international reputation with his recordings and with his work as a Third Stream educator at the New England Conservatory of Music. His music has been strongly influenced by the genre of film noir; in this…
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Posted in Shows on Sep 3rd, 2005
This week on Night Lights we honor Sonny Rollins’ upcoming 75th birthday (Sept. 7, 2005) with “Sonnymoon,” a program of Rollins’ recordings with piano giant Thelonious Monk. Monk forged a musical friendship with Rollins when the tenor saxophonist was still in his teens, a friendship that eventually produced…
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