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This week's Night Lights program pays tribute to the Artie Shaw centenary (Artie born May 23, 2010) by focusing on the last few years of his recording career--his short-lived but dynamic 1949 big band, some of the classical recordings he made that same year, and his revived Gramercy Five of 1953-54. The show is now archived for online listening: Shaw Sounds Final: Artie Shaw 1949-1954 Next week: "The Last: Final Recordings of Jazz Greats" (Artie will pop up in that one as well)

Phil Woods goes where no man has gone before... Barry Harris loves Lucy... Bob James takes a taxi. Last week’s Night Lights show now up for online listening (with plenty of material on the cutting-room floor for a sequel): Heard It On The TV: Jazz Takes On Television Themes

Best recording debut year ever by a jazz artist? A recent Night Lights show on trombonist Curtis Fuller's first season in the jazz big leagues: Rookie Of The Year: Curtis Fuller '57

Up a bit early in honor of Ellington's birthday today, here's this week's Night Lights show, featuring music from The New Orleans Suite, the second and third sacred concerts, the Goutelas and Latin American Suites, the Afro-Eurasian Eclipse, and more, as well as commentary from Michael McGerr and numerous musical outtakes at the bottom of the post: Ellington Ending: Duke Ellington 1967-73

This week's Night Lights show, which explores Bill Evans' early recordings (almost exclusively as a sideman), is now posted for online listening. Featuring the music of Charles Mingus, Hal McKusick, Tony Scott, George Russell and others, it shows Evans' playing in a different light from the later style for which he'd gain fame: Very Early: Bill Evans, 1956-58

Last week's Night Lights show, a tribute to the 1950s and early 60s work of pianist and arranger/composer Andre Previn, is up for online listening: Jazz Of All Trades: The Eclectic Andre Previn It includes music from the adolescent Previn's Ellington album, two of his West Coast jazz collaborations, selections from the My Fair Lady album and Subterraneans soundtrack, and more.

Last week's Night Lights show, featuring commentary from Soul Jazz author Bob Porter and music from Charles Earland, Gene Ammons, Lou Donaldson, Brother Jack McDuff, and others, is now up for online listening: Bob Porter's Portraits In Soul Jazz

Last week's Night Lights show, devoted to the late 1950s/early 1960s recordings of pianist Freddie Redd, with a heavy emphasis on Blue Note material, is up for online listening: Ready For Freddie Redd Didn't have time to include "San Francisco Suite," but that will be included in another program later this year.

This week on Night Lights it's "Queen of the Organ: Shirley Scott." Although an admirer of Jimmy Smith, Shirley Scott found her own sound on the Hammond B-3 and became its most renowned female practioner, recording a number of soul-jazz classics from the late 1950s onward. We'll hear selections from the many albums that she and husband Stanley Turrentine recorded during the 1960s, as well as collaborations with Eddie Lockjaw Davis and Oliver Nelson, and her rarely-heard 1974 Strata East album One for Me. "Queen of the Organ" airs Saturday, March 18 at 11:05 p.m. on WFIU. The program will be posted to the Night Lights archives the following Monday afternoon. Next week: "The Late Miss D." Dinah Washington's early-1960s Roulette recordings.

This past April Night Lights aired a show devoted to Billie Holiday's 1950s recordings for Norman Granz, in honor of her centennial. That program is now up for online listening: Late Lady: Billie Holiday On Verve In The 1950s

Kicking off the countdown to the Nat King Cole centennial with a new Night Lights program: Nat King Cole, Jazz Pianist Lots of trio sides, encounters with Lester Young, Charlie Parker, Les Paul, and Coleman Hawkins, plus selections from The Piano Style Of Nat King Cole, Penthouse Serenade, and After Midnight. Coming up later this week: “‘The Jackie Robinson of Television’: The Nat King Cole Show.”

By way of a tribute to the pianist for his upcoming 70th birthday, a look back at his 1960s recordings with Blue Mitchell, Stan Getz, and Miles Davis, and as a leader: Matrix: The Emergence Of Chick Corea

A recent Night Lights program focusing on the brief but significant musical partnership of pianist Horace Parlan and saxophonist Stanley Turrentine is now available for online listening: Pittsburgh Soul Connection: Horace Parlan And Stanley Turrentine

One 2020 flashback that's hopefully more enjoyable than the year in general (granted, a low bar to clear): Best Historical Releases 2020 Also realizing that I'm long past due figuring out a way to incorporate exclusively vinyl reissues (such as Blue Note's Tone Poet series) into these surveys. I can't honestly feature or say anything about them, because I don't buy new vinyl (for a variety of reasons)* and such releases never get serviced to radio (at least that I'm aware of). But I'm certainly aware that vinyl is the more popular format now for reissues and archival recordings. I may just start posting a general supplementary list of LPs that came out in the past year, more as a reference point than anything else. *Rare exceptions made for titles like the Sonny Clark trio album that came out on Record Store Day a couple of years ago and was initially announced as vinyl-only, though it was subsequently released on CD as well.

Here's a recent Night Lights show about Hugh Hefner and Playboy Magazine's relationship to jazz, including commentary from Patty Farmer, author of Playboy Swings: How Hugh Hefner And Playboy Changed The Face Of Music. Also check out the clip from Hefner's late-1950s TV show that features Nat King Cole and Lenny Bruce chatting side-by-side with Hef & friends: Swingers: Hugh Hefner, Playboy Magazine, And Jazz

Posting this week's Night Lights show a bit early, given that Christmas falls on Friday. Joe Pass, Paul Desmond with the Modern Jazz Quartet, and Judy Holliday are among the featured artists. Have Yourself A Very Quiet Christmas Happy holidays and all that jazz, David

This week's Night Lights show offers a look at the prelude to Dave Brubeck's rise to fame with the Brubeck Quartet, focusing on his time on the West Coast in the late 1940s and the music of his early octet and trio: Playland At The Beach: Dave Brubeck's Early Octet And Trio Next week: "The Arrival of Victor Feldman."

Louis Armstrong was a legendary innovative trumpeter, a vocalist who had a profound impact on jazz singing, and a dynamic entertainer--and he got a chance to showcase all these aspects of his talent in 28 full-length films and several short features in which he appeared between 1931 and 1969. We'll celebrate Armstrong's birthday this weekend with a program that includes music from the films New Orleans, High Society, A Man Called Adam, The Five Pennies, and more, including the outtake "Ain't It the Truth" from Cabin in the Sky. You can also watch movie clips of Armstrong and Billie Holiday doing "Farewell to Storyville" as well as the Paris Blues battle scene with Sidney Poitier and Paul Newman on the "shows" page of the new Night Lights website. "Satchmo, Take Two" airs this evening on Armstrong's birthday at 11:05 p.m. EST on WFIU and at 9 p.m. Central Time on WNIN-Evansville. It will also air tomorrow evening at 10 p.m. EST on Michigan's Blue Lake Public Radio. The program will be available for online listening Monday morning on the new Night Lights "Shows" page. Next week: "The King at Midpoint: Benny Carter."

In honor of Charles McPherson's 70th birthday today, here's this week's Night Lights program, devoted to his 1960s and early-1970s recordings (including one side with Mingus): Charles McPherson's Post-Bird Bop Next week: "Live at Cafe Bohemia."

This week on Night Lights it's Teddy Charles: The Early Avant-Garde (with thanks to garthsj and Late). In the early 1950s vibraphonist Teddy Charles made a series of records with Shorty Rogers, Jimmy Giuffre, and others, that still escape easy definition today--were they Third Stream? Were they West Coast? Were they cool jazz? We'll hear selections from his albums New Directions and Collaboration: West, as well as his 1956 Atlantic LP The Tentet, and appearances as a sideman with Wardell Gray and Miles Davis. For more information about Teddy Charles, see Noal Cohen's Coda article. The program airs Saturday night at 11:05 p.m. (9:05 California time, 12:05 NYC time) on WFIU; you can listen live, or wait until Monday afternoon, when the program will be posted in the Night Lights archives. Next week: "Late Lee." The late & last recordings of Lee Morgan.

A new and recent Night Lights show now up for online listening: Nica's Tempo: More Hipsters, Flipsters, And On-The-Scenesters Last week's Dorothy Ashby program coming soon.

This week's Night Lights show, The Last: Final Recordings of Jazz Greats is now posted for online listening. Music from Bill Evans, Gerry Mulligan, Stan Getz, Billie Holiday, Artie Shaw and more. Special note of thanks to Jim Sangrey, and a safe and reflective holiday weekend to all. Next week: "Jazzing the Cool" with special guest Ted Gioia.

Posting this week’s show, the first of a two-part tribute to Yusef Lateef, a bit early because today is his centenary. Mark Stryker, author of Jazz From Detroit (and well-known as a contributor to this forum) joins the program to talk about this key period in Lateef’s development as a musician: The Jazz Message Of Yusef Lateef: The 1950s

This week on Night Lights L.A. jazz historian Steve Isoardi joins us for "One More You Wrote Through Us: Horace Tapscott." In 1961 pianist Horace Tapscott turned down a chance to have a high-profile career with the Lionel Hampton band and spent the next several decades in Los Angeles, leading several community-jazz bands and doing his best to extend the mentoring and teaching tradition that he had experienced growing up during the glory days of L.A.'s Central Avenue era. The underground jazz scene that he helped to create and sustain--a vibrant, multi-arts mix of culture, politics, and African-American values--has now been documented in Isoardi's new book, The Dark Tree: Jazz & the Community Arts in Los Angeles. We'll hear some previously unissued music by Tapscott and UGMAA (Union of God's Musician and Artists Ascension) and the Pan-Afrikan People's Arkestra (from a CD included with the new book), along with solo and trio Tapscott piano recordings and a collaboration with Black Panther activist Elaine Brown. "One More You Wrote Through Us: Horace Tapscott" airs Saturday, February 24 at 11:05 p.m. EST on WFIU and at 9 p.m. Central Time on WNIN-Evansville. It also airs Sunday evening at 10 p.m. EST on Michigan's Blue Lake Public Radio. The program will be posted, along with 12 extra interview clips not used in the show itself, Monday afternoon in the Night Lights archives. Next week: "Alice Coltrane, Ascending."

In 1963 the sixth annual Monterey Jazz Festival included a blues duet between Gerry Mulligan and Peewee Russell, the festival debuts of Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk, a moving performance from Jack Teagarden just four months before his death at the age of 58, and a dedication from the Modern Jazz Quartet to Martin Luther King Jr., weeks after his “I have a dream” speech and days after the deaths of four African-American girls in a Birmingham, Alabama church bombing. Oh, and Dizzy Gillespie launched his “Dizzy For President” campaign as well. Last week’s Night Lights show up for online listening: Jazz From Monterey, 1963: Dizzy For President!