Jazz Nights In America: 50 Years Of Monday Nights At The Vanguard

Airs Monday, July 4, at 11 p.m. In the middle of their careers, the trumpeter and composer/arranger Thad Jones and the drummer Mel Lewis found themselves with a book of big band music -- and no band to perform it. So they made their own, and debuted on a Monday in February 1966 at the famed Village Vanguard. The Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra, now the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, still plays every Monday night. Jazz Night In America heads to the basement jazz shrine to see the band's 50th anniversary show, full of cuts from Thad's songbook, and tells the story of how the band came to be.