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Part 2 of the Night Lights program devoted to the life and music of Thelonious Monk with special guest Robin D.G. Kelley is up for online listening: Thelonious Monk: From Myth To Man Robin talks about why Monk went over so well at the Five Spot, his musical partnerships with John Coltrane and Charlie Rouse, his time at Columbia Records, his response to the free-jazz and civil-rights movement of the 1960s, his relationships with his wife Nellie and his friend Pannonica (the "Jazz Baroness"), and his late-period recordings and compositions. Here's Part 1 of the program: Thelonious Monk: From Man To Myth Next week: "Portraits of Harlem," featuring some previously unreleased excerpts from 1939 and 1945 broadcasts of James P. Johnson's Harlem Symphony, Duke Ellington's 1963 recording of his Tone Parallel to Harlem, Roy Eldridge's "I Remember Harlem" and much more, including an interview with John Howland, author of Ellington Uptown: Duke Ellington, James P. Johnson and the Birth of Concert Jazz.

Part 1 of the two-part Night Lights program I did on Monk with biographer Robin D.G. Kelley is now up for online listening: Thelonious Monk: From Man to Myth (Part 1) It covers Monk's early years and the Blue Note/Prestige period. Special thanks to Joe Medjuck.

Posting these today in honor of Sonny's 87th birthday: Crossing The Bridge: The Return Of Sonny Rollins Rollins '57: Sonny Rollins Takes The Lead Sonny Rollins: Live In London Sonnymoon: Thelonious Monk And Sonny Rollins Not too long ago I revisited the Prestige box in its entirety... incredible to think that that was only the beginning.

Last week's Night Lights show, a look at the career of trumpeter Kenny Dorham, is now up for online listening: http://indianapublicmedia.org/nightlights/durable-kenny-dorham/ It spans his career from early bebop recordings with Charlie Parker and the Bebop Boys to his last studio session with Cecil Payne.

Posting these two previous Night Lights programs today in honor of what would have been the pianist, composer and arranger's 85th birthday: The Duke Pearson Songbook Now Hear This: Duke Pearson's Big Band

I still miss the menu we had for the first few years of the show, but paging through this way at least allows you to view ten episodes at once: Night Lights shows Simply click "Next page" at the bottom to move back chronologically through archived programs.

A tribute to father-and-son jazz formations this week on Night Lights, in honor of the upcoming Father's Day holiday: Daddy-O!  Father-and-Son Teams in Jazz Plenty of material left over for a sequel next year...and special thanks (as noted at the bottom of the program page and at the end of the program itself) to board members Chuck Nessa and rostasi.

Last week's Night Lights show, with music from Dexter Gordon, Bill Evans, John Coltrane, Jimmy Giuffre, George Russell, Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie and others, and a timeline for the year's events, now up for online listening: 1961: New Jazz Frontier

I decided to pay tribute to the Goodman centennial this week with a program devoted to his brief foray into bebop (1947-49): Benny Goodman's Bebop Interlude Mostly small-group, some big band, lots of Wardell Gray, plus appearances from Stan Hasselgard, Mary Lou Williams, and Fats Navarro. Broadcasting tonight at 10 p.m. EST on WFIU and tomorrow night at 10 p.m. EST on Blue Lake Public Radio, but it's already archived for online listening.

Up for the arrival day of Mr. Ra: Second Magic City: Sun Ra In Chicago

Last week's Night Lights program, drawn from the new Mosaic Records set Classic Savoy Be-bop Sessions 1945-49 (with a couple of Charlie Parker sides included for the sake of historical comprehensiveness) is now up for online listening: Boppin' On Savoy: Bebop And Savoy Records In The Late 1940s

A recent Night Lights show now up for online listening, revisiting the historic New York City nightclub of the 1950s and early 60s, featuring broadcasts and recordings by Charlie Parker, Bill Evans, Art Blakey, Charles Mingus, Maynard Ferguson, and more: http://indianapublicmedia.org/nightlights/jazz-corner-world-live-birdland/

Some programs, including Dear Martin: Jazz Tributes To Martin Luther King Jr. and We Shall Overcome: Civil-Rights Jazz, as well as articles, interviews, and shows about Duke Ellington: Night Lights For MLK Day: Jazz And More

Some shows from the archives to help pave today's way to 2017: Jazz For Mad Men: Hits From The 1960s Hipsters, Flipsters, And On-The-Scenesters The New Year's Eve Jam Swingers: Hugh Hefner, Playboy Magazine, And Jazz ...and step out to a couple of nightclubs while you're at it: Cafe Society: The Wrong Place For The Right People At The Jazz Corner Of The World: Live From Birdland Jazz From Storyville Happy 2017 and all that jazz.

Here's the annual Night Lights program highlighting some of my favorite historical releases and reissues from the year that's concluding. The program post includes an expanded list of titles, not all of which were able to fit into the show. I'd love to see your choices--I'm sure I omitted some that I either didn't know about or left out for other reasons: Best Historical Releases 2016

This week's Night Lights show, the annual Christmas extravaganza, now up for online listening: Hep To The Holidays ...includes poet Sascha Feinstein reading "Christmas Eve," a poem about the legendary 1954 Miles Davis-Thelonious Monk recording session, Bob Brookmeyer's "Santa Claus Blues," Horace Silver and Andy Bey's recording of "Peace," and much more. Plus, check out the program page for a Night Lights holiday outtake--hipster comedian Lord Buckley performing his take on Dickens' "A Christmas Carol." Happy holidays, all.

Here's a recent Night Lights program about the arrival of American bebop artists on the Continent in the late 1940s, including studio recordings and concert broadcasts from Chubby Jackson, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis and Tadd Dameron, Charlie Parker, Max Roach, Kenny Clarke, and more: Bebop Comes To Europe

On this recent edition of Night Lights, veteran pianist Hod O'Brien talks coming of jazz age in the 1950s, playing with Ornette Coleman and Chet Baker, and much more. We also check out recordings he made as a leader and with Art Farmer, Donald Byrd, and Idrees Suliemann, JR Monterose, Roswell Rudd, and others: A Portrait Of Hod O'Brien

Re-posting three Night Lights programs today in honor of Bud, born on this day in 1924. The first two include some commentary from Powell biographer Peter Pullman; the third focuses exclusively on live recordings by Powell from 1944 to 1953: Time Flies: The Life And Music Of Bud Powell, Part 1 The Scene Changes: The Life And Music Of Bud Powell, Part 2 Burning With Bud: Bud Powell Live, 1944-1953

This past weekend's Night Lights show, Jazz From Monterey: 1958, Birth of a Festival, is now up for online listening (just ahead of the 2010 festival). It features live performances from the Jimmy Giuffre 3, Louis Armstrong, Gerry Mulligan, Billie Holiday, Cal Tjader, and Dave Brubeck. Coming later this week: "Goin' Up: Jazz in the Space Age."

I've put together a new bibliography for the Night Lights blog--this one covering jazz autobiographies. Heads-ups for the inevitable oversights, omissions, etc welcome as always: Songs Of Themselves: Jazz Autobiographies

Another recent Night Lights show up for online listening, devoted to the music and life of arranger and trombonist Melba Liston: http://indianapublicmedia.org/nightlights/proving-melba-liston-arranger-lady-trombone/

This past week's Night Lights show, Portraits of Harlem, is now up for online listening. It includes several rare 1939 and 1945 broadcast excerpts of James P. Johnson's Harlem Symphony, the entire 1963 recording of Duke Ellington's A Tone Parallel to Harlem with the Paris Symphony Orchestra, and more music from Benny Carter, Roy Eldridge, Clifford Thornton, Cab Calloway, Johnny Otis, Louis Armstrong and more. I also talk with John Howland, author of Ellington Uptown: Duke Ellington, James P. Johnson and the Birth of Concert Jazz. Portraits of Harlem Special thanks to rostasi.

This week on Night Lights it’s Do It Again: Jazz Remakes Jazz artists have occasionally revisited albums years or decades after their original release, sometimes rerecording them in their entirety. Often this has been done to take advantage of new, better-sounding audio technology, to explore the longer LP format (some "albums" were originally 78 folios or 10-inch long-players), or simply to tackle material through a different aesthetic filter. On this edition of Night Lights we’ll hear such revisitations from vocalist Helen Merrill and arranger Gil Evans, saxophonist Gerry Mulligan, trombonist Curtis Fuller, pianist Mal Waldron, and other artists such as Duke Ellington and June Christy who have given material a second-time-around treatment. “Do It Again: Jazz Remakes” airs Saturday, July 15 at 11:05 p.m. EST on WFIU and at 9 p.m. Central Time on WNIN-Evansville. It also airs at 10 p.m. EST on Michigan's Blue Lake Public Radio (FM 90.3 and 88.8). The program will be posted in the Night Lights archives Monday afternoon.

Benny Goodman in the USSR, Ellington in the studio with John Coltrane and Charles Mingus/Max Roach, Sonny Rollins back on the scene, Ornette Coleman at Town Hall, bossa-nova on the rise, the avant-garde still simmering--a new "year in jazz" Night Lights show up for online listening, accompanied by a historical timeline for the year: 1962: Cool In Crisis