graaspiano

Great show David! Thanks for mentioning my contribution to the program. I'm going to Ball State University next week to look at the John Graas Archive.

Ghost of Miles, I have been periodically checking out what will be on this week for Night Lights and yesterday morning the info page was there. I know there's lots more on the CD than my uncle and I'm sure it will be an interesting program. I listen to these CDs frequently. I probably have about 25 CDs that John played on (Kenton, Tex Beneke, Shorty Rogers, Gerry Mulligan, his own groups, etc.) and all the videos of the Liberace TV show where John was frequently featured. Since Liberace's father was a french horn player, I think Liberace really loved the instrument. It seems like there have been a lot of re-releases coming out. Whatever you decided to do on the shows, I'll be listening with interest.

Thanks for the welcome neveronfriday! It's hard for me to be objective about my uncle, but I think he accomplished a lot in a short life. The release of "The John Graas Project" is reviving some interest in him.

Hello, I'm a new member. I have great interest in the show on Night Lights tomorrow night because my uncle was John Graas. He died when I was 12 years old. I went on to become a classical pianist. I have collected just about everything he played on and it's getting to be a big collection. I enjoyed the archive audio of the "The Wild One" on the Night Lights website and have listened to a lot of the other programs. Some people pronounce Graas "Grass" but it's pronounced like the first syllable of "Gracias". Also, growing up it was constantly misspelled as Grass. Verle Ormsby, Jr. wrote his doctoral dissertation on John and I got a copy and found it very fascinating. Dr. Ormsby is now on the faculty of UW-Eau Claire. I teach at UW-Parkside (Wisconsin system). I am not a jazz pianist but I love jazz and enjoy reading about it and listening to it.