Night Lights this week: fund-drive!

[ghost of miles]

I have some very good news regarding Night Lights; because of the positive responses that the program has garnered, it will not be moving back an hour because of the time-change. Instead, Portraits in Blue will now air at 12:05 a.m.(from November through April) and Night Lights will continue to air at 11:05 p.m. on Saturday nights.

That change--which is actually no change at all--takes effect immediately, beginning this week with our first-ever fund-drive program. A year ago this program didn't exist, and the opportunity to create it has given me a great deal of pleasure and excitement. I hope some of that pleasure and excitement comes to you, whether you're listening live or on the archives page. In particular I want to express my gratitude to you, the members of the Organissimo board, for your support, your input, and your all-around jazz savvy--your far-flung listenership has provided an invaluable boost for the show at my station. In the coming weeks I'll be doing programs on jazz and Marlon Brando's THE WILD ONE, jazz coffee songs (more than you might think), Shorty Rogers' take on THE NUTCRACKER SUITE, Charles Mingus' Savoy Jazz Workshop album, Albert Ayler's HOLY GHOST, and Dinah Washington's early-1960s Roulette recordings. In 2005 I'll be doing programs on the film version of Jack Kerouac's THE SUBTERRANEANS (featuring Gerry Mulligan as a hip priest), jazz "cameos" (hit pop tunes on which famous jazz musicians appear), singers Oscar Brown Jr. and Jeri Southern, and much, much more.

I love jazz, I love books, and I love movies. This show has given me the chance to present programming that draws on all of those aspects of jazz culture. If you share that love and enjoy hearing the shows, then I hope that you'll pledge during this Saturday evening's Night Lights show, airing at its new/old 11:05 p.m. time (8:05 p.m. on the West Coast, 10:05 in Chicago, 11:05 in New York). You can call 1-800-662-3311 toll-free since most (heck, nearly ALL) of you are outside the WFIU listening area, or you can pledge online at WFIU. I've managed to assemble what I think is a pretty cool list of thank-you gifts that I'll be playing during the show:

The Herbie Nichols Project, STRANGE CITY. I played several tracks off this on the recent Herbie Nichols Project program (here). Nearly all of these songs, written by Nichols, were never recorded by him.

Various artists, ALL THAT JIVE. A Savoy collection of Dizzy Gillespie, Billy Eckstine, Eddie Jefferson, Annie Ross, Jackie Paris, and other hip vocalese (including the first-ever vocal version of "Round Midnight," featured on the 7/10/04 Jackie Paris program).

Eric Dolphy, BEST OF. A new 78-minute-long compilation of Dolphy's 1960-61 work for the Prestige label.

Jackie McLean, BEST OF. A new compilation of Jackie's mid-1950s recordings.

Miles Davis, BEST OF. A new collection from Miles' mid-1950s Prestige period, with Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane, among others, featured prominently.

Duke Ellington, FAR EAST SUITE. Ellington's monumental mid-1960s ode to his State Department tour.

Frank O'Hara, VOICE OF THE POET. When I put together the Billie Holiday "The Day Lady Died" program, I thought finding a recording of O'Hara reading his own poem would be futile. Fortunately for me, Random House had just released this CD, replete with an accompanying book of the texts, of O'Hara caught on tape during a number of readings in the 1960s, including, sure enough, "The Day Lady Died."

We also have the new (and, sadly, last) Ray Charles CD, GENIUS LOVES COMPANY.

Most of these CDs are given away at the $90 pledge level. I have some Verve Elites, however, that I want to give away to any Organissimo poster who pledges at the basic $40 membership level. They are the Jazztet's HERE AND NOW, the Jazztet's AT BIRDHOUSE, and Art Farmer's LISTEN TO THE ORCHESTRA. I'll mail 'em to you ASAP (Monday morning after the show).

One last, big-ticket item: the four-CD Fantasy spoken-word box, HOWLS, RAPS, AND ROARS: THE SAN FRANCISCO POETRY RENAISSANCE (online description here), with monologues and readings from Lenny Bruce, Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, and others. I hope you'll call with whatever amount you can pledge this Saturday night between 11:05 and midnight Indiana time at 855-0811 or 1-800-662-3311 or at the online site. Thanks so much for whatever you can do, and, as always, please feel free to send me suggestions, comments, and ideas regarding Night Lights.

This show came about in part because the previous program, the syndicated Worldwide Jazz, lost its corporate sponsor and ceased production. WFIU was considering filling the time-slot with expanded overnight classical music until I proposed Night Lights. Christina Kuzmych, our station manager, gave me the chance to do this show and to continue providing our listeners with a late-night Saturday jazz program. We are locally-produced and locally-sponsored (a tip of the hat to the Laughing Planet Cafe and Soma Coffee and Juice Bar) and we hope for your support, whether you're local or global!

Thanks again,

David Brent Johnson

Night Lights

Saturday 11:05 p.m.

WFIU 103.7 FM

Bloomington, IN

Edited November 5, 2004 by ghost of miles

[pryan]

Sounds like a good program. I'll try to listen in live, but if I go out tommorow will the show be archived so I can listen at another tgime?

[ghost of miles]

Sounds like a good program. I'll try to listen in live, but if I go out tommorow will the show be archived so I can listen at another tgime?

Pryan, unfortunately the fund-drive shows won't be archived--at least there are no plans to do so right now.

[Jazzmoose]

You're in the Central time zone, right? Or am I confused yet again...

[ghost of miles]

You're in the Central time zone, right? Or am I confused yet again...

We're actually in the Eastern Time Zone... but time never changes in Indiana. I ain't kiddin'! We never adopted Daylight Savings Time. Seemed kinda... you know... kinda funny, and we Hoosiers don't cotton to funny business.

We're three hours ahead of you.

[ghost of miles]

Up for broadcast in about 2.5 hours... in addition to an Art Farmer Verve Elite, anyone from Organissimo who pledges will get their name gleefully shouted out over the air... and I may just sing. OK, maybe not.

[ghost of miles]

Up for broadcast and pledges!

1-800-662-3311.

LIstenlive

Edited November 7, 2004 by ghost of miles

[Chuck Nessa]

We're actually in the Eastern Time Zone... but time never changes in Indiana.

I think this may be true. Lived in Bloomington at the end of the '60s and in many ways it was a time warp. B-)

[ghost of miles]

We're actually in the Eastern Time Zone... but time never changes in Indiana.

I think this may be true. Lived in Bloomington at the end of the '60s and in many ways it was a time warp. B-)

As a wise man (or guy) is wont to say, "Indeed."

Folks can also pledge online.

[ghost of miles]

Chuck is graciously & generously donating some Nessa label CDs as thank-you gifts for next week's show--I'll be listing them later on in the week for next Saturday's broadcast.