Afterglow

Series produced by WFIU

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Afterglow is a weekly, one-hour program of vocal jazz and popular song from the Great American Songbook, hosted by Mark Chilla.

Ella, Frank, Billie, Duke -- WFIU's Afterglow has them all.

Afterglow highlights the best of vocal jazz and popular song from the 1930s to today. Each episode explores a new topic about the greatest jazz singers. Whether it's the unlikely friendship between Frank Sinatra and songwriter Jimmy Van Heusen, the times trumpeter Clifford Brown worked with vocalists, or songs all about love, Afterglow tells the stories of the Great American Songbook.

Afterglow first aired on WFIU sometime in the late 1970s, hosted by a man named Dick Bishop, who gave the show its elegance, passion, laid-back expertise, congenial charm, and that "martini-moon" quality. After Bishop's retirement in 2005, the show was hosted by David Brent Johnson. In February 2015, Mark Chilla took the helm, continuing to bring an hour of the Great American Songbook to the airwaves in a high-quality production available every week.

For syndication information, please contact LuAnn Johnson at lujohnso@indiana.edu.

For help subscribing please email prxhelp@prx.org.

Find us at http://indianapublicmedia.org/afterglow/.

Afterglow is a production of WFIU at Indiana University in Bloomington. Hide full description

Ella, Frank, Billie, Duke -- WFIU's Afterglow has them all. Afterglow highlights the best of vocal jazz and popular song from the 1930s to today. Each episode explores a new topic about the greatest jazz singers. Whether it's the unlikely friendship between Frank Sinatra and songwriter Jimmy Van Heusen, the times trumpeter Clifford Brown worked with vocalists, or songs all about love, Afterglow tells the stories of the Great American Songbook. Afterglow first aired on WFIU sometime in the late 1970s, hosted by a man named Dick Bishop, who gave the show its elegance, passion, laid-back expertise, congenial charm, and that "martini-moon" quality. After Bishop's retirement in 2005, the show was hosted by David Brent Johnson. In February 2015, Mark Chilla took the helm, continuing to... Show full description


Additional Files

111 Pieces

Order by: Newest First | Oldest First
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E.Y. “Yip” Harburg wrote words to some of the most memorable songs in American culture, including “Over The Rainbow” and “It’s Only A Paper Moon” a...

  • Added: Mar 17, 2021
  • Length: 59:00
Caption: Marvin Gaye's 1964 album of standards "When I'm Alone I Cry"
Soul singer Marvin Gaye was a reluctant R&B star. Gaye wanted to be a ballad singer, and he recorded the music of the Great American songbook mostl...

  • Added: Mar 08, 2021
  • Length: 59:00
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This week, we salute jazz singer Nancy Wilson by featuring some of her best recordings from the 1960s, including “Someone To Watch Over Me” and “Gu...

  • Added: Mar 04, 2021
  • Length: 59:00
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This week, for Women’s History Month, we explore the songs of Dorothy Fields, a Tin Pan Alley songwriter whose work stretched from the 1920s throug...

  • Added: Mar 03, 2021
  • Length: 59:00
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Join Afterglow for our annual salute to the Grammy nominees in the vocal jazz and traditional pop categories, ahead of the 2021 Grammy Awards. We’l...

  • Added: Feb 22, 2021
  • Length: 59:00
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This week on Afterglow, we explore the work of one of vocal jazz's first innovators, Connee Boswell, whose swinging and complex style influenced th...

  • Added: Feb 11, 2021
  • Length: 59:00
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The rich baritone of Lou Rawls could sing R&B, jazz, blues, gospel, and pop. This week, we’ll explore his early work for Capitol in the 1960s.

  • Added: Jan 27, 2021
  • Length: 59:00
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This week on Afterglow, we pay tribute to songwriter Billy Strayhorn. We’ll hear the sophisticated melancholy of Duke Ellington’s right-hand man in...

  • Added: Jan 14, 2021
  • Length: 59:00
Caption: Carmen McRae's 1958 album "Birds Of A Feather", Credit: Album Cover
This week, “Baltimore Oriole,” “Skylark,” “A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square” and other songs about birds from the Great American Songbook.

  • Added: Jan 12, 2021
  • Length: 59:00
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Singers Lucy Reed and Lucy Ann Polk never spent time in the spotlight, but their output of songs from the 1950s are worthy of some close attention,...

  • Added: Dec 28, 2020
  • Length: 59:00
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Was “Heat Wave” an Irving Berlin song or a Martha and the Vandellas song? Was “In The Still of the Night” a Cole Porter song or a Five Satins song?...

  • Added: Dec 17, 2020
  • Length: 59:00