RADIO/PODCAST: Claude Thornhill: Godfather of Cool

Claude Thornhill was a pianist, composer, and arranger whose 1940s big band helped shape the sound of modern jazz, with orchestral bop and ethereal ballads tinged with classical influences that set the stage for later masterpieces by Miles Davis and Gil Evans. Through his unusual instrumentation and subtle sense of dynamics, Thornhill and his collaborator Evans created music that was powerful yet quiet and that “hung like a cloud,” as Evans said. This week Night Lights pays a symboli...

Read full article Share article