This
week on Night Lights its Norman Granzs Jazz
Scene. Jazz impresario Norman Granz, who started the popular Jazz
at the Philharmonic concert tour series in the 1940s as well as the
record label that came to be known as Verve, also produced a lavish
package of jazz recordings that was somewhat akin to an early box-set:
The Jazz Scene, a folio packet of six 78 records with an accompanying
set of photographs of some of the top jazz artists of the day and liner
notes for each musical selection. In his introductory note Granz wrote,
This is our attempt to present todays jazz scene in terms
of the visual, the written word, and the auditory, and emphasized
that hed given the sets musicians complete artistic freedom.
Among
those appearing in the collection were Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young,
pianist and arranger Ralph Burns, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, and
Latin jazz bandleader Machito. The set was issued in a limited edition
of 5,000 copies and sold for a cool $25 (yes, thats 1949 dollars).
Norman Granzs Jazz Scene airs Saturday, September
9 at 11 p.m. on WFIU.