Trumpeter Wynton Marsalis made an appearance Monday night on The Colbert Report, trading verbal fours with the inimitable ex-presidential “candidate”. It’s always interesting to see how guests act on Colbert–whether they get the concept and play along (as most do, especially these days) or whether they end up cluelessly deadpan.

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Historian and Indiana University professor Michael McGerr is a man whose scholarly knowledge and personal enthusiasms are infectiously wedded. In Part 2 of this Night Lights interview, Michael talks about the influence of Duke Ellington’s ambitious Black, Brown and Beige suite and the civil-rights movement on later composers who undertook extended black musical histories as well. Michael is a guest on this week’s show, Suite History: Duke Ellington, Oliver Nelson, John Carter, and the African-American Odyssey…

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Jazz criticism first emerged in the 1930s, accompanied by the rise of “hot clubs” and collector groups, often consisting of young white men who gathered to listen to recordings, argued feverishly over the merits of their favorite players, and pursued an obsessive interest in what came to be known as the science of discography. Some critics, such as Leonard Feather and John Hammond, became agents of influence in the jazz world, promoting musicians in the jazz press, producing record sessions, and organizing…

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