"When Russell Met Baker" in Night Lights archives

[ghost of miles]

If anybody has ever tried to listen to the 8/14/04 "When Russell Met Baker" program (featuring George Russell's circa-1960 recordings, which incorporated David Baker's Indianapolis hard-bop group), it's finally available, along with an info page:

When Russell Met Baker

We'll probably air this again later this summer when the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra comes back to town, but for now it's available online... Mostly music from STRATUSPHUNK, AT THE FIVE SPOT, and KANSAS CITY.

Edited July 28, 2009 by ghost of miles

[alocispepraluger102]

his effort with bley and evans is worthy of some note.

[Chuck Nessa]

I'd hoped this thread was about Pee Wee and Shorty.

[ghost of miles]

In the summer of 1959 a 27-year-old David Baker and several bandmates from Indianapolis attended the Lenox School of Music in Lenox, Massachusetts. There they met George Russell, a jazz composer and theorist in his mid-30s who had first gained renown in the late 1940s for his compositions "Cubana-Be, Cubana-Bop" and "A Bird in Igor's Yard," and who had published a book about his progressive jazz ideas and theories called The Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization. Russell had recorded several highly noteworthy albums in the 1950s, including Jazz Workshop and New York, New York, and was looking to form his own small group. Baker and his colleagues were young, energetic, and ready to embrace new musical modes of thinking, despite their roots in bebop. In the next year and a half, after intensive rehearsals with Russell in Indianapolis, the George Russell Sextet--comprising Russell, bassist Chuck Israels, and the nucleus of David Baker's Indianapolis group--Baker on trombone, David Young on tenor sax, Al Kiger on trumpet, and Joe Hunt on drums--played a well-received three-week gig at New York's

Five Spot club, toured the Midwest, and recorded three albums. The results--At the Five Spot, Stratusphunk, and the rarely-heard Kansas City--can be heard on this edition of Night Lights, which will be broadcast Saturday, August 12 at 11:05 p.m. EST on WFIU; because it has been aired before, you can hear it now by clicking on When Russell Met Baker.

(Note to southern & central Indiana listeners; the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra, under the direction of David Baker, will be performing at the Musical Arts Center in Bloomington this Saturday evening at 8. More information here.

Edited July 28, 2009 by ghost of miles

[alocispepraluger102]

In the summer of 1959 a 27-year-old David Baker and several bandmates from Indianapolis attended the Lenox School of Music in Lenox, Massachusetts. There they met George Russell, a jazz composer and theorist in his mid-30s who had first gained renown in the late 1940s for his compositions "Cubana-Be, Cubana-Bop" and "A Bird in Igor's Yard," and who had published a book about his progressive jazz ideas and theories called The Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization. Russell had recorded several highly noteworthy albums in the 1950s, including Jazz Workshop and New York, New York, and was looking to form his own small group. Baker and his colleagues were young, energetic, and ready to embrace new musical modes of thinking, despite their roots in bebop. In the next year and a half, after intensive rehearsals with Russell in Indianapolis, the George Russell Sextet--comprising Russell, bassist Chuck Israels, and the nucleus of David Baker's Indianapolis group--Baker on trombone, David Young on tenor sax, Al Kiger on trumpet, and Joe Hunt on drums--played a well-received three-week gig at New York's

Five Spot club, toured the Midwest, and recorded three albums. The results--At the Five Spot, Stratusphunk, and the rarely-heard Kansas City--can be heard on this edition of Night Lights, which will be broadcast Saturday, August 12 at 11:05 p.m. EST on WFIU; because it has been aired before, you can hear it now by clicking on the August 14, 2004 link in the Night Lights archives.

(Note to southern & central Indiana listeners; the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra, under the direction of David Baker, will be performing at the Musical Arts Center in Bloomington this Saturday evening at 8. More information here.

Also, we are commencing a three-week fund drive for the Night Lights archives. If you live in the WFIU, WNIN-Evansville, or Michigan Blue Lake Public Radio listening areas, we ask that you pledge those stations while Night Lights is on during their fund-drive. If you live outside of those listening areas and enjoy listening to all of the historical jazz programs that Night Lights offers to you at any time, day or night, via the archives, you can help to not only maintain those archives, but also to expand our ability to bring you new and even more comprehensive programs, by making a contribution here. We have a goal of reaching $500 by the end of Labor Day Monday. Much thanks to any and all who can help us reach this goal; those who contribute $60 or more will receive a classic Blue Note jazz CD of their choice from the critically-acclaimed Rudy van Gelder series.

Note to Blue Lake/WNIN-Evansville area listeners: due to several WFIU references in the original "When Russell Met Baker" program, another program will be broadcast in your region: "Not Afraid to Live: Frank Hewitt," which is already archived.

i have so much trouble fitting even your archives into my listening schedule with nur, and lazlake, and a marvelous classical station i have found in brussels, but the 12 or 15 programs i have heard are exquisite and cast a very long shadow.

i will send you a substantial monetary thank you by labor day, god willing, i promise. aloc

[ghost of miles]

Up in memory of Mr. Russell:

When Russell Met Baker

Looking forward to much more comprehensive radio portraits of Mr. Russell's career elsewhere this week.

[ghost of miles]

Forgot about this one as well:

The Jazz Workshops: George Russell and Hal McKusick

[BillF]

Have heard both those programs and can recommend them.

[Guest Bill Barton]

The news of his passing really kicked me in the gut. It will be a week or two before I can pull together a fitting tribute on my own radio show due to the fact that all the CDs etc. are in boxes for moving right now. Thank you, ghost, for keepin' the faith and continuing to offer THE TRUTH to listeners.