EARLY BARON this week on "Night Lights"

[ghost of miles]

This week on Night Lights it's the early music of Charles Mingus, taken from an Uptown Records CD entitled "Charles 'Baron' Mingus: West Coast Recordings, 1945-49." Musicologist Stefano Zenni has an interesting website devoted to this little-heard period of Mingus' music, which includes jump blues, Ellingtonian ballads, bop, and quasi-third stream pieces. There is also a very informative interview with legendary producer (and Organissimo board member) Chuck Nessa, who did a great deal of work on this CD (it was a five-year project, and comes with a 96-page booklet replete with biographies of all the musicians and many photos as well). The program airs Saturday night at 11:10 and can be heard on the web at WFIU.