Please support the Night Lights archives

[ghost of miles]

We are starting a mini-fund drive for the Night Lights archives, with a goal of raising $500 by Labor Day Monday, which will follow show #100 ("I Want to Live!"). If you listen to the program in the WFIU, WNIN, or Michigan Blue Lake listening areas & wish to make a contribution, I'd ask that you do so during those stations' normal fund-drives, pledging to the station while the program is on. However, if you enjoy hearing programs in the archives so much that you just don't want to wait, please go ahead! The archives are maintained so that listeners can hear the wide range of historical jazz programs that Night Lights provides at any time. In the coming months I hope to offer more programs that utilize interviews with jazz writers such as Larry Kart, Nat Hentoff, and John Gennari; support for the Night Lights archives will enable us to expand the scope of the show in this and other ways, such as wider national distribution for the program. If you chip in at the $60 level or higher, you'll receive a Blue Note RVG cd of your choice. I'm grateful to any and all who do choose to make a contribution; this board in particular has been extremely supportive of the show. (Also very grateful to those who've e-mailed me with program ideas and suggestions, or just to tell me that a certain link isn't working!) You can make a contribution here.

Upcoming programs in September:

Sept. 2--"I Want to Live!" Music from Johnny Mandel's score for the 1958 movie starring Susan Hayward as Barbara Graham, a real-life Gerry Mulligan fan who was tried for murder and executed in California in 1955, despite her protestations of innocence. Mulligan is just one of many stellar jazz musicians on the soundtrack.

Sept. 9--"Norman Granz's Jazz Scene." Selections from one of the first lavish and limited-edition jazz box-sets, including recordings by Ralph Burns, George Handy, Charlie Parker, and Machito.

Sept. 16--"Jazz Does Disney." Jazz interpretations of tunes from Disney movies, performed by Dave Brubeck, Sun Ra, Betty Carter, Sonny Rollins, and others.

Sept. 23--"Red Trane." The late-1950s studio encounters of John Coltrane and Red Garland.

Sept. 30--"When Betty Met the Duke." The scant but compelling discography of singer Betty Roche with the Duke Ellington Orchestra.

...and much more planned for October. And if you can't kick in a financial contribution to the archives, rare LPs and secret B-B-Q recipes are welcome as well!

With much thanks and appreciation for all the help you've provided in developing this show,

David

Edited August 29, 2006 by ghost of miles

[Nate Dorward]

Rare LP headed your way

Hey, the link(s) do(es)n't work!

[ghost of miles]

I've sent a message to our webmaster and operations person. In the meantime, you should still be able to access the "Support" page through the link at the top of the archives page.

Obviously we are in dire need of support!

Edited August 10, 2006 by ghost of miles

[Big Al]

I've got a couple of CTI LPs to donate, since no one around here wanted to buy them!

[ghost of miles]

Support links fixed!

[ghost of miles]

Up for a second week.

Doing this show is a labor of love. Like many people here, I have a great passion for jazz, books, and movies, and I'm very lucky to have a chance to translate that enthusiasm into a weekly program. In the past, radio programs were simply in the air and gone after being broadcast (somewhat reminiscent of Eric Dolphy's famous remark concerning music); now listeners can come to a program on their own time and terms. As of Labor Day there will be 100 original programs in the Night Lights archives covering artists & themes such as Miles Davis with Sam Rivers, Gigi Gryce, the early music of Cecil Taylor, Jackie McLean, Sonny Rollins live in London, lost legends such as Freddie Webster and Frank Hewitt, jazz in TV shows and movies like Peter Gunn, The Subterraneans, The Connection, and I Want to Live, the "Turn Out the Stars" memorial programs of jazz elegies, programs devoted to the Decca Jazz Studio series, and shows focusing on lesser-known singers such as Lorez Alexandria, Jackie Paris, and Johnny Holiday, as well as ones covering both the Philips and RCA eras of Nina Simone. There are shows about artists such as Teddy Charles and Henry Grimes, and programs that look at jazz's intersection with certain social & political themes and issues ("Resolution: Jazz From Rehab" and "Jazz Goes to the Cold War").

Jazz is increasingly an endangered species on the radio. It's becoming harder and harder to hear it on the airwaves, and more of us find ourselves listening on the Internet these days. (Lazaro Vega at Blue Lake Public Radio and Steve Schwartz at WGBH are two of my favorites.) If you live in an area where you can hear Night Lights on the radio (south-central and southwestern Indiana or the Blue Lake area in Michigan's Lower Penisula) then please support those stations... but if you enjoy being able to listen to these programs from anywhere else in America, Canada, Israel, Japan, England, France, or whatever country and continent you happen to be in, and are looking forward to more of them... then please consider supporting the Night Lights archives. I'm really hoping to branch out a bit in the coming year by doing more interviews with jazz writers and musicians through what are known as ISDN interviews--which give an audio quality that makes it sound as if the interviewee is in the same room with you, even if he or she is actually sitting in Los Angeles and you're in New York. (ISDN is used on NPR's Fresh Air all the time.) The money we raise through the archives will help us to do such things, and to make sure that we have the server space to accommodate more and more Night Lights programs.

I'm grateful, as always, for the feedback, suggestions, and assistance that I've received, especially through this board (most recent instance is Stereojack's help with an upcoming John Gilmore program--many thanks!). Hoping that we can reach this $500 goal by Labor Day with your support.

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

[ghost of miles]

Many, many thanks to those who've made a contribution so far--one of our web people just sent us the first batch of donations. Much appreciation for the support; we're off to a good start! I often work on programs even after I come home from work, just because I love doing them so much, and after I saw those e-mails, I really got fired up and thought, "Man, I'm gonna work on shows and the schedule for the next few months all weekend long!" Well... I'll probably take a few breaks here & there, say hello to the rest of the household & feed the cats, all that sort of jazz... Did someone say jazz?

[ghost of miles]

Up for the last week/home stretch. Although we got off to a great start, we've slowed significantly & are in need of more support in order to make our goal by the end of Labor Day Monday. A little over two years ago, our station manager took a gamble and decided to let me have a late-night, not-so-prime-piece-of-radio-real-estate when Worldwide Jazz lost its corporate sponsorship and was taken off the air. Part of her decision was based on her belief that this program, as I described it, might translate into something that--in addition to possibly ending up on other stations--could be promoted over the Internet as well. For the past year & a half we've gotten a fair amount of very positive e-mail from listeners around the world who enjoy hearing Night Lights programs, and nearly all of them are listening to the program via the archives. In order to maintain those archives, we need to pay a webmaster. In order to justify the hours the station lets me spend on the program, we need to maintain listener support. If you're somebody who's enjoyed listening to the program at all--or who's been able to decide whether or not to buy a CD or a boxed-set based on a certain show you've heard--then please consider supporting Night Lights.

Up this week: show #100!

[ghost of miles]

Up for one last push--thanks esp. to one Organissimo member's generous contribution, we're only about $75 short of our goal... which is three $25 pledges, or five $15 ones... so close! The donation tab will stay up, so folks can contribute any time that they like.... but it would be a tremendous boost for Night Lights to make this goal by midnight tonight.

Happy Labor Day, and many thanks again to all past, present, and future supporters of the show.

[alocispepraluger102]

Up for the last week/home stretch. Although we got off to a great start, we've slowed significantly & are in need of more support in order to make our goal by the end of Labor Day Monday. A little over two years ago, our station manager took a gamble and decided to let me have a late-night, not-so-prime-piece-of-radio-real-estate when Worldwide Jazz lost its corporate sponsorship and was taken off the air. Part of her decision was based on her belief that this program, as I described it, might translate into something that--in addition to possibly ending up on other stations--could be promoted over the Internet as well. For the past year & a half we've gotten a fair amount of very positive e-mail from listeners around the world who enjoy hearing Night Lights programs, and nearly all of them are listening to the program via the archives. In order to maintain those archives, we need to pay a webmaster. In order to justify the hours the station lets me spend on the program, we need to maintain listener support. If you're somebody who's enjoyed listening to the program at all--or who's been able to decide whether or not to buy a CD or a boxed-set based on a certain show you've heard--then please consider supporting Night Lights.

Up this week: show #100!

if mickey one could be presented in a manner similar to 'i want to live,' you will have a winner.

Edited September 4, 2006 by alocispepraluger102