I know I am not alone... I watched this show in Japan with Japanese subtitles and although I was able to archive few episodes on DVD from my old VHS tapes, I would love to see all 44 episodes of Night Music hosted by David Sanborn and Jools Holland.
These shows are just too precious to be left unarchived in history: we need to do something! Ideally, DVD box-set will be great, but if individual episodes becomes available on iTunes, I am sure many of us will buy multiple episodes.
So I decided to create this blog to start the petition to NBC to make Night Music (Sunday Night) available through Apple iTunes store or through DVD reissue (maybe from Rhino?).
If you would also like to see Night Music series, please leave your comment. Thank you!
For more information about the show, please go to:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunday_Night
Sunday, January 14, 2007
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114 comments:
Well, here's one vote! What an amazing show this was, and I'd love to see some of these performances again.
Please add my name to this petition! "Night Music" was SPECTACULAR! Whether you were a musician like myself, or someone with a TRUE love of music there was no greater show. No distinctions ever existed between genres. Phil Woods played along with NRBQ. Pat Metheny plays along with Taj Mahal and Todd Rundgren. What more can one say?!
I would pay dearly to have a DVD box set. Best thing ever on TV if you ask me. Not sure how to cast my vote, thogh. Mark me as an "YE" if possible and keep me informed.
Brian at bsmith@clearsonic.com
There was a version of "Something is Wrong with my Baby" with Robert Cray and I think Steve Winwood that has been haunting me since i saw the original broadcast. Stumbled on this petition while doing my usual annual search for it. Please add me to the petition
Here's another vote. I recently found a few episodes in my video collection. I appreciate the performances a lot more now than I ever did then, and would love to see more of that stuff.
Definitely put me in the Yes column. Steve Swallow and Bootsy and Allen Touissant was a highlight of my musical education.
I treasure by two wornout VHS tapes of night music - especially the Dan Hicks, Pat Metheny, Jean-Luc Ponty, Eric Clapton, Fareed Haque, Bill Frisell episodes. I'd gleefully cough up for a DVD set!!!
Loved the show. Would like to buy a DVD of it. I am especially interested in the Leonard Cohen appearances, (I believe he was on twice).
Add me to this list. I'm a huge music fan and thought I was pretty diverse and knowledgable in my tastes, that is, until I discovered "NBC's Sunday Night" (later, Night Music).
It literally changed not only how I look at music but how to open my ears to the music that is all around.
This show was also on BET (US cable) a few years back, FYI.
Watched this religiously when it first aired... best music program ever on TV, bar none. Amazing diversity and excellent production. I would buy the DVD set in an instant, if it ever becomes avail.
I was just searching youtube for "Sunday Night" as I knew it in Seattle. I have a few recorded on VHS - great show, especially the archived footage you could never see anywhere else. I'd buy the DVD(s).
I was just searching youtube for "Sunday Night" as I knew it in Seattle. I have a few recorded on VHS - great show, especially the archived footage you could never see anywhere else. I'd buy the DVD(s).
Here's another vote. I'd pay! I only ever caught a couple of shows on TV. Still remember Sanborn and Hakim and co. standing in a line, grooving a tune played on kids' toy instruments...
Yeah, I'd buy it. that show changed my life
Yes yes please. This is a very important series that needs to be (re)issued on DVD or iTunes for sure. Not just for music collectors, musicians, and scholars, but certainly also for future generations.
One more vote! Never before and never since has there been such a diverse musical experience than Night Music! I'd pay for this series. I would love to share it with my students and let them see what can be done with music.
Add me to the list of fans of the amazing "Night Music," the brainchild of maverick producer Hal Wilner!
Leonard Cohen's performance of "Who By Fire," Featuring Was Not Was and the amazing Sonny Rollins is one of TV's quintessential moments.
Also near the top of my list: Taj Mahal, Todd Rundgren and others performing Gilbert and Sullivan;
The odd-looking, odder-sounding Ambitious Lovers;
and who can forget Conway Twitty backed by the Residents in their EYEBALL costumes!
TT
Hey, I would love to see this on DVD---without a doubt--- I know at least 10 folks that would just buy the entire complilation if released.
What's probably stopping them is that the show had a cult audience at best so maybe the numbers aren't there--- BUT Nonetheless -- I've seen lots of worthless garbage that once inhabited the network TV make it into DVD collections. Geez --- just do it for the musical education alone. For the Youth of planet !!!! DAMN IT!!!!
Yes, yes! I've been telling friends for years that some video reissue specialist (are you listening Rhino? Reeling in the Years?) should buy the rights to Night Music for DVD issue. I stayed up to watch and tape at least half of the shows and I watch the videos regularly, particularly the one with Leonard Cohen and Sonny Rollins. And then there's the show with John Hiatt and Robert Cray nailing a killer version of Sam and Dave's "When Something Is Wrong with My Baby." (Every time I play this tune I love to watch drummer Omar Hakim break into an ecstatic grin during a particular high point in the song.) I would buy a box set of this show in half a heartbeat.
I've been wanting complete copies of Sunday Night/Night Music for the last 15 years or so.
I would treasure a DVD release fo this series!
I am all for this petition. This was a great program, and does the world a service by bringing such a diverse line-up of musicians and artists to one show. Right on for Night Music!
I would love to see this on DVD preferably, iTunes second. I love having the original media for video. Hope this comes to fruition!
just found out about this show through catching a hank crawford performance... the talent that this show had on in its short duration seems completely impossible and i need to see it for myself. DVD!
This show seem to slip in and then slip away ... it still haunts me. The mixture of differing musicians just left me watching with my jaw dropped.
It was the greatest music show on tv. Well worth being tired on Monday. Worth the price, whatever that may be
NIGHT MUSIC WAS A TREASURE, I HAVE A CREDIT CARD READY TO PURCHASE TAPES OR DVD'S ON A MINUTE'S NOTICE. ONE THE FINEST SHOWS EVER IN THE HISTORY OF TELEVISION. CHANCE MCFADDEN IOWA CHANCEMUSIC@YAHOO.COM WWW.FORTMADISONGUITARS.COM
This show needs to be seen by more people today. The success of dvd sales of Old Gray Whistle Test and Later with Jools Holland proves that there is an audience out there for a dvd release.
Night Music was probably the greatest and most eclectic music show ever made and this needs to be recognised.
Here's my signature for your petition. This is one of the few things I'd pay to have. :)
yes. yes. yes. If "Journey Under the Sea" gets its own sets, why not this great show?
Looking at the artists that played on each episode of this show, it looks like it would be a great document of creativity to have.
It gets my vote.
seen it once im my life and i remember watching one of Pat Metheny´s most moving performances.. and that is just a little bit of all that the show treasures. add my name to your pettition please.
i'm definitely in. i loved the sun ra show, would be great to have these on DVD.
Put me down! I never could watch it because I had to go to work the next day - I (luckily) had my first vcr so I would tape it. One show, with Take 6 and Clara Ward, was mindblowing. Stuff was a truly great back up band.
I would pay for this.
I had no idea that it had been this long since this show was on. Yes, I would love to see some of these great performances again; in addition to seeing some of the greats who have passed on like Gillespie, Mayfield, Little Milton, Stevie Ray, and Warren Zevon. Keep it going!
I watched this show faithfully and even managed to record a couple of them on VHS. I would love to have all of them on DVD. Thanks for this effort to make that happen. These performances are too valuable to not be shared.
I'm in
reissue it please
I would absolutely buy a compilation of this show. This was the best music show ever!
YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.
Add my name too
Spooky
Excellent Show! Would love the opportunity to buy a complete series DVD. This show really expanded my musical tastes. I tell everyone I know about this show and usually get the deer in the headlights look. Their loss!
When I first found out about this show (completely by accident that is), simply by looking at the weird combinations of artists from such disparate genres, I knew right away I had to catch an episode.
I'd definately buy the series.
When I first found out about this show (completely by accident that is), simply by looking at the weird combinations of artists from such disparate genres, I knew right away I had to catch an episode.
I'd definately buy the series.
Well, seems like there are at least 45 of us who'd buy the darn thing. This was TV at it's absolute finest -- it was far too good to last, and I said so at the time. Pearls before swine -- which is why I recorded as many as I could on VHS back in the day. And sadly, they mostly kind of fell to pieces long before the option of transferring them to DVD existed. I'd pay a couple hundred bucks to have the series in its entirety. You hear that Lorne Michaels?
DO IT!
This was absolutely the best music show on TV ever (maybe the best TV show, period). I STILL get goosebumps 20 years later when I recall the John Cale/Richard Thompson/Shawn Colvin version of "Heartbreak Hotel". I really do think that the reason the show failed was the late Sunday night timeslot. Most people had to work Monday morning, and skipped it. I would buy the DVD in a second, and buy several more to give as gifts.
This was one of my favourite shows.
I can't believe the number of times I have talked about this show and how much I miss it.
I believe that this deserves to be on disk, in the best possible audio quality feasible.
It would be a shame to boil this show down to a highly compressed file.
They don't make shows like this anymore.
Me too! Holy crap that was the only time I saw great music on TV. And it was on *every* week. Must have it back!
Let me add my plea to the others. Please, please, please bring it back and issue a DVD. I need to have the Robert Cray and John Hiatt reindition of Something is wrong wiht my baby!!
Absolutely the best musician-themed show ever. I bought more records after watching episodes of this show than I ever did listening to the radio. What a terrific blend of styles & musicians. My personal favourite was Richard Thompson with Jo-el Sonnier stompin' through 'Tear-Stained Letter' Please, Please, Please bring this out on DVD!
Indeed, please add my name to your petition. I've been looking for this show to be released on DVD for quite some time and tonight I stumbled across this page. May it be released soon! So much garbage out there, why don't they give the masses something decent for a change!
Craig Christman
If there was nothing else to see or hear from this show(and there is) I would buy the whole series just to see Taj Mahal sing "Pirates of Penzance" with Todd Rundgren again. All forms of music were represented on this great show!! Please release "Night Music" to the public!!
I LOVED this program when it was on the air! The unique array of so many styles of music with possibly the best house band ever should not be left in some pile of tapes but should be released to the public. I say YES! I would gladly pay for a boxed set. SIGN ME UP!
I am in, I think DVD or a HD version would be awesome for better quality video and audio. iTunes is also cool but may not be as high a quality. I am glad I stumbled onto this blog, somewhere to let our voices be heard. So many amazing artists in once in a lifetime jam sessions!!
I loved that show and it would be great to see it reissued on DVD or rebroadcast.
Another electronic petition signer here. I was so wowed by episode #208, in which I was introduced to both Mary Margaret O'Hara and The Bill Frisell Band, that some years later I wrote to Broadway Video asking if there was any way to purchase a copy of the program. A couple of weeks later, I received to my surprise a padded envelope with a hand-labelled videotape of that episode! It's a prized possession, but I would dearly love to have the complete series in a more modern and higher-definition format. One of the best, if not the best music program on television. The vintage clips were great too.
I have a few bits from the show like the duet cray vs clapton that are absolutelly unique.Pleeeeeease reissue the show i can t believe why they re keeping it in the vault with so many crap coming out...
Man,that was a show!!Remember seeing Diamalas Galas,Sonic Youth,and Sun Ra.Making a retro dvd set or a cable channel picking up the rights to show this classic piece of work would be righteous.This is my vote.
Just rewatched the Mary Margaret O'Hara performance on YouTube... which was the standout for me of the original show and that's saying something when each episode was such an amazing and eye-opening surprise.
If there's a god they will issue the dvd in my lifetime.
I just found this, and would like to add my name to the list. Night Music was perhaps the greatest music show ever on TV and I'd run out and buy the DVDs if they were released.
Brian Leonard
Springfield, VA
I'm was and am, a huge fan of Night Flight,and SNUB TV, but Night Music was an event in and of itself. The opportunity to see Screaming Jay Hawkins and Bongwater with Nona Hyndrix or Al Green or God knows who; all playing "Old Man River" as the credits roll...there's no place to see something like that now. I'm begging with Broadway Video, or whoever holds the rights to this, to PLEASE release these.
I would love to see this show again! My musical tastes were not broad enough in 1990 to appreciate many of these artists, sadly. But I would gladly pay $$ to own the DVDs. -- Kathleen E.
Easily the best show in the history of television. Unforgettable music was created...it well deserves to be immortalized in my DVD collection. Free the Night Music 44!
Not only should the original show be made available for commercial distribution, it should be put back into production. Where else could I see Taj Mahal, Sanborn, Todd Rundgren, Nanci Griffith and that dude playing elementary school record players with stretched-out and taped up discs, all playing a Gilbert & Sullivan piece from The Pirates of Penzance? I guess it was too much like "I'll Fly Away." It made you think too much. Come on, Broadway! We want to pay for your wares! Release this show somehow.
Here's one more name to the list. The YouTube clips I've come across lead me to believe there's hours more where they came from.
Dave
Please release this material immediately!
I have always thought this program rocked. Please make it available for those who appreciate great music!
I studied music in college and also played sax.
There has not been a better program since!
Absolutely .......This was music that can not be lost....wonderful, weird, fabulous combinations of artist that blew me away every week.
Interesting to know.
The thought of a video re-release leaves me breathless. I'd love it. I have some of the shows, some complete, others not, on tape and those tapes are precious to me. Some day they'll wear out [gasp}.
Just came across your site thanks to the intertubes and Wikipedia.
NBC or Apple or whomever; please hear this: I will buy this complete two season release on DVD or on iTunes the day it releases. Please make this available for sale.
Yes, dear goodness, please clean up the old tapes and reissue to DVD.
Get this show on DVD.
Are you kidding me?, What are you waiting for?
YES,
This show should be on DVD.
Hal W., as musical coordinator
( great musical producer; love the Charles Mingus disc )
This music, on this show, opened many doors to me, when I was so "green" in life: I was the class of '90 in high school.
I still remember, LL Cool J and those dancers, Miles Davis, Papa Wemba, John Zorn, Marc Ribot, Ladysmith..., John Lurie ( great DVD...Fishing with John Lurie ), crimany sakes, even a Cleveland Native: E# and so much more, I want to see AGAIN.
I am also a music promoter in the cleveland area at night and social worker by day.
www.myspace.com/madmattspromotions
Bring It On.
Get the rights and publishing.
We need intelligent music shown on tv again.
Peace and Chix Greaze,
-w
This show absolutely changed my outlook on music and it's relationship to larger society. Elliott Sharp, The Residents ON STAGE with Conway Twitty (?!?!?!), Tim Berne (his performance on this show leading DIRECTLY to my moving to Boston to study music), Christain Marklay.... wow. I have been searching for copies of these shows since they aired.
Not only would I BUY the DVD set, I work for a DVD production company and I would DO the DVD production for free to help these recordings see the light of day again.
Lorne - c'mon man - loosen the grip!
Goodness Gracious!
i'm soooooooo glad to learn that someone else was watching!!
if Mr. Michaels wants to prove the musical prowess he touts then he should put -our- money where -his- mouth is. i'll pay up Lorne!... through the nose if i have to!
-just don't edit a single goofy, random moment out of that incredible show. The RANGE of talent was the show, not the talent itself (although that was formidable!)
C'mon Lorne it'd be nice to have proof that there is good reason for American Commercial Television to have existed.
Hell! Keep all the dough for yourself. Sell us copies of the raw masters, there's more than enough expertise out here to catalog & master them.
dead seriously,
doc
How could anyone be so blind to the staggering amount of musical talent which so graciously performed on this show, and if only for history's sake, if they are not interested because of someone in the marketing department not feeling it, NBC and GE ought to make these into the public domain, as it is a representation and celebration of our cultural legacy.
Which hopefully, in this day of everything being dominated by the suits, can still happen anyway, in a grass-roots kind of way by people sharing what they have on torrents all over the web.
Culture will survive despite the bean-counters' shortsighted and perennial lack of vision. Until they are forced to release a DVD, there's some consolation in the fact that our common heritage has found a way to bypass these roadblocks and gatekeepers devoid of any sense of aesthetic responsibility.
Z.
Yes! Yes! Yes! I would definitely buy this set if it ever come out on DVD.
I would buy any portion or the whole series in any format. I've nearly worn out the few episodes I have on VHS
Writing from the UK, I can clearly see that such an important collection of groundbreaking Jazz artists should be available to the whole world via DVD. There would be no lack of customers for such DVDs.
the best music show ever. i told dave sanborn so years later. he told me that it was always a struggle for the network to market the show (getting sponsors), which is probably why they think nobody would be interested in a re-issue. i would buy the dvd box set in a heartbeat.
So what's the deal on the "NIGHT MUSIC COLLECTION 2 DVD SET" being sold at the following url?
http://shop.vendio.com/blackivory28/item/764791837/index.html
Surely not Lorne-approved but has anyone bought this? If so, what kind of quality?
Funny... I was just looking through some old stuff last night and found my original VHS tapes of some of the episodes of Sunday Night/Night Music... I would definitely purchase A) any DVD boxed set collection of the shows or B) individual episodes on iTunes. Someone please bring this back.
Count my vote.
I found the Wikipedia site for Night Music:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunday_Night
and the production company is Broadway Video:
http://www.broadwayvideo.com/
and click on the "Distribution" link, Night Music is listed as something they distribute. Click on "Night Music" and it says that, "This series is available for television and home video distribution in various territories around the world." What does that mean?
I searched other places like Amazon and could find nothing. I plan to email Broadway Video to ask about how/where this is distributed.
Bob
Has anyone responded to the link
http://shop.vendio.com/blackivory28/item/764791837/index.html
whether it is an authorized DVD retailer or not?
Thanks.
Manny Oquendo doing "Elena"-trombone section that could elevate you off of your feet.
Leonard Cohen doing "Tower of Song" with Sonny Rollins- transcendent.
Conway Twitty- soaring vocal crescendo on "It's Only Make Believe"
My old VHS tapes are disintegrating.
End the Recesion/Depression! Release the DVDs and us consumers will claw our wallets out of our pockets.
It was a great series. It really should be on DVD.
The show was a gas!!! I remember it well, and hope that DVDs are available soon.
I would be a definite purchaser.
I still reply performances from that show in my memory. A great show that exposed me to many great artists that I had either never heard of, or I was unfamiliar with. I found this site while I was searching for shows from it. I and many others would love to see these shows again.
Lorne Michaels owns the rights to the show. That %^&#$^* will never release the show on DVD or iTunes. We have to hope we outlive that &^$#@& and maybe his heirs will see fit to do the right thing.
please, please, please - baby, please, please, please... two of the MANY highlights from the heyday - leonard cohen singing "who by fire" accompanied by was (not was) and sonny rollins... (heart, please be still!!) and ll cool j singin "big ole butt" among a bevy of fine ladies with... well, you know - and if you don't know, YOU BETTA ASK SOMEBODY!!! the show was simply seminal.
Yet another vote for getting this published to DVD as soon as possible as I'd love to own a set. I watched this series as a teen girl and it completely changed my life at the time and exposed me to some incredible music that I doubt I'd have found otherwise. There has never been another show like it--at least not here in the US.
How long do we have to wait? I'm going to be too deaf to hear it if it takes too much longer...old age is approaching!!!! Just kidding...but really...JUST DO IT!!!
Please.
This show was airing at a time where I had no musical direction - I would have never become a fan of the blues (Clapton, Cray, Vaughn etc) Jazz (Sanborn, Davis Bullock) world (Johnny Clegg) and even some rock (Sting, Squeeze and on and on ) without this show - litereally the shining light at the end of the weekend before another drawn out work week. Let's celebrate it's amazing history with a dvd (and maybe cd?) collection. It's been 20 years!! I can honestly say we would have never seen MTV Unplugged, Sessions @ West 54th, or even Jools Holland's own Later show if not for the groundbreaking this program did. Please - let's see this again!
Please add my name to this petition! "Night Music" was incredible. The artists were icons and viewers learned a lot about music they might not be that familiar with. I think it was just another one of those shows that was too intelligent for regular network TV. Whoever owns the rights should release the shows.
Please make Night Music available on DVD! The impact it had on me (and many others, from what I read here) was so profound that I simply can't imagine how my musical taste would have developed without it...
Night Music erased the lines between Musical Genres and revealed the common connections between all music and musical artists. This show was simply too profound an experience to keep away from those who may have never had the chance to be awakened by it. Please make all the shows in it's all too short two seasons available for us all again. It was truly a music show for musicians and anyone who loves to listen. -Oliver K.
add my vote as well - great musicians were a part of this and it was quite unlike almost any other music show on TV. please make it avaiable
This was one of my favorite shows, and I taped it religiously. I was devastated when I realized my tapes are missing. I'd dearly love to be able to see it again!
This was the best music show on TV ever. I would absolutely love to have this on DVD so I could play it for my kids as well as enjoy every episode myself.
It *was* the best show on TV. I had the pleasure of talking to David Thomas, lead singer of Pere Ubu, after they had opened for the Pixies at the Ritz, years ago. All he could talk about was being on the show with Debbie Harry. The best part was the jam session at the end of each show. I was just cleaning out the basement and dug out about a dozen VHS tapes of the show I had buried in an old cabinet. I can't wait to watch them. But I need more! Add me to the petition.
NBC = National Bonehead Corporation
please reissue the series. thanks.
yes yes yes, will BUY, come on NBC!!!
Add my name. When I saw Conway Twitty with the Residents and Screamin' Jay Hawkins with Bongwater (doing a Roky Erickson tune!!!!) I thought, "This is the best TV ever! I would instantly purchase the entire series on DVD.
Add me to the list. After seeing a few videos on youtube, I wondered where the rest of Night Music's great collaborations could be found.
My transcendent moment was finding the great Sonny Rollins and Leonard Cohen in a duet. I knew little about Leonard Cohen but I was dumbstruck by the power of that moment. Great music, great television. I should also add that Night Music has some of the best archives of musicians that are no longer with us, like the great Betty Carter.
Yes, please make the series available!
Absolutely, I loved this show. I would stay up after Hockey Night in Canada and watch this on CBC. It was the best thing on TV. Many of the acts on this show I'd never heard of but the common denominator was that they were all wonderful. Anyway, great to see kindred spirits on here. Good luck with the petition.
About 15 minutes ago, I discovered Night Music via a YouTube video clip., and immediately, my next course of action was to see if the show was available on DVD, and it wasn't, so I found my way here moments later...
Here's one more vote for the cause!
Absolutely add one more vote to this.
Does on'yone know if this petition is actualy being forwarded to Broadway Video?
Whatever it costs, I'm in.
I used to watch this religiously when it first ran. I've long told people about the show - and never been able to describe it very well.
Even today I believe it will have a limited audience. But historical posterity demands it be preserved. It truly was one of the best shows ever put to air.
Would love to see it!
LOVED (and would still love if i could get my paws on it) this show. AMAZING combinations of disparate talent... just jaw dropping. PLEASE?
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