Posted in WFIU Jazz Shows & Specials on Oct 9th, 2008
Composer Johnny Green wrote the music for several songs that went on to become staples of the jazz-and-popular-song canon, including “Body and Soul,” “Out of Nowhere,” and “I Cover the Waterfront.” Born in New York City on October 10, 1908, he went to Harvard at the age of 15, did some early arranging work for Guy Lombardo, and notched his first hit with “Coquette.” After an unhappy turn as a stockbroker, Green abandoned Wall Street…
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Posted in Shows on Jul 28th, 2008
“Here were the children of the American bop night,” Jack Kerouac wrote in his 1957 novel On the Road, which, like many of Kerouac’s other writings, celebrated and invoked the music of Charlie Parker, Lester Young, and many other jazz greats. We’ll mark this weekend’s 50th anniversary of the publication of Kerouac’s best-known book with a program that explores his relationship with jazz, including recordings he made with saxophonists Al Cohn and Zoot Sims…
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Posted in Jazz Notes on Mar 16th, 2008
Some jazz news of note from the past week or so…
*Mosaic Records has put up information and a discography for their forthcoming Lester Young and Count Basie set. I was told last week that the Benny Goodman Columbia box is on track for an early-summer release.
*Ethan Iverson of The Bad Plus has posted his recent interview with bassist Charlie Haden, which originally appeared in this past January’s Downbeat.
*The widely-syndicated, Siskel-and-Ebert-style radio jazz program Listen Here! will cease distribution at the end of this month. Word is that NPR’s long-running…
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Posted in Jazz Notes on Dec 27th, 2007
As expected, many more Oscar Peterson articles and tributes have appeared in the past two days. Here are a few of them:
New York Times obituary
Steve Voce in the Independent
Lots of love and spirited dissension in this Organissimo discussion…
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Posted in Books, Jazz Notes on Oct 9th, 2007
Word has come via Mosaic Records that pianist Jack Wilson has passed away. Wilson’s best-known albums were two 1960s Blue Note dates, Easterly Winds (featuring the hardbop dynamic duo of Jackie McLean and Lee Morgan and Something Personal. He’s also present and accounted for on several…
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Posted in Shows on Aug 27th, 2007
“Here were the children of the American bop night,” Jack Kerouac wrote in his 1957 novel On the Road, which, like many of Kerouac’s other writings, celebrated and invoked the music of Charlie Parker, Lester Young, and many other jazz greats. We’ll mark this weekend’s 50th anniversary of the publication of Kerouac’s best-known book with a program that explores his relationship with jazz, including recordings he made with saxophonists Al Cohn and Zoot..
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Sometimes when a great jazz musician dies, another jazz musician writes a musical tribute. On this Memorial Day weekend edition of Night Lights we’ll hear elegies for Charlie Parker, Lester Young, Sonny Clark, Clifford Brown, Billie Holiday and more, from artists such as Lennie Tristano, Bill Evans…
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Posted in Shows on Jul 17th, 2004
Billie Holiday died in New York City at 3 a.m. on Friday, July 17, 1959–45 years to the day of this broadcast. In addition to Holiday’s music–”Don’t Worry ‘Bout Me,” from her little-known last album BILLIE HOLIDAY (recorded after LADY IN SATIN), “This Year’s Kisses” (with Lester Young), the vibrant early side “Life Begins When You’re in Love,” a moodier & spookier alternate take of her Decca recording “No More,” and other…
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