Night Lights' annual holiday tribute celebrates the season with plenty of cool-Yule jazz, including Shorty Rogers' take on "The Nutcracker," pianist Bill Evans having some vocal fun with "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" (as well as the backstory on how the song came to be written), guitarist Emily Remler offering up a luminous version of "Snowfall," and poet Sascha Feinstein reading his poem about the legendary Miles Davis-Thelonious Monk Christmas Eve 1954 recording session.  Lighthearted and poignant, perfect for December. 

We're celebrating Christmas with music from a variety of traditions. We'll explore the original tunes of two well-known carols, hear medieval music based on legends of Saint Nicholas, and sample Byzantine chant sung during the Christmas season. Plus, baroque orchestra Apollo's Fire offers a gift of Celtic holiday music in our featured release.

We’re celebrating the holidays with a unique performance of music from 17th- and 18th-century Mexico, Peru and Bolivia, including a cantata and three free-standing works by colonial Mexican composer Manuel de Sumaya – works that have not been performed since his lifetime!

Join us as musicians of the Historical Performance Institute at the Jacobs School of Music of Indiana University bring these sparkling works to life once again.

We’ll also hear villancicos, motets and so much more—all marking some part of the story of Christmas.

Music in this program is from a live performance at Indiana University's Jacob School of Music, October, 2014 by members and faculty of Historical Performance Institute / Dana Marsh, Dir.

Pieces are not available on a commercial recording.

It’s the holiday season, everyone, a time where the American Songbook often is featured front and center in shopping malls, car stereos, and commercials. And for our annual holiday episode of Afterglow, I’m going to explore a few songs off the snowy track. Instead of “Silent Night” and “White Christmas,” we’re going to be taking a look at some more obscure holiday tunes, as performed by songbook favorites like Ella Fitzgerald and Bing Crosby.

It’s the holiday season once again, and so it’s that time of year to feature something the singers of the American Songbook are most known for: singing holiday tunes. On this special, I’ll be keeping things light and fun, featuring only upbeat, rhythmic numbers to get you in the holiday spirit. We’ll hear winter and Christmas tunes, both sacred and secular, sung by some of your favorites, like Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong and more.

Christmastime is here again, so on this Afterglow special, I’ll be celebrating with a few holiday favorites from the jazz world. Instead of featuring Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Rosemary Clooney, and other standard-bearers of tinsel and holly, I’ll be looking at a few more recent artists. We’ll hear Christmas standards performed by jazz and traditional pop singers from the current century, including people like Kurt Elling, Dianne Reeves, Gregory Porter and more.

Happy Holidays, all you Great American Songbook fans out there. We have a special collection this hour of some favorite songs for Christmas by some of the best known crooners from the Great American Songbook, including Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney, Frank Sinatra, and more. We’ll also hear the story behind some now ubiquitous Christmas songs, like “White Christmas,” “The Christmas Song,” and “I Heard The Bells On Christmas” Day.” Hosted by Mark Chilla.

We’re ringing in the new year this hour. As we say goodbye to one year and say hello to another, I’m featuring an hour of music from the American Songbook all about beginnings, sung by some favorites like Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald and more. We’ll hear a couple of “New Year” related songs, including “Let’s Start The New Year Off Right.” We’ll also hear some standards about fresh starts, like “I’m Beginning to See The Light,” “Begin The Beguine,” and “This Could Be The Start Of Something Big.” And Nat King Cole will provide us with some advice for starting over again.