Music

Fresh Air's jazz critic reviews a new CD box set, Boogie Woogie and Blues Piano, featuring remastered recordings from such greats as Chicago's Jimmy Yancy, Meade Lux Lewis, Pete Johnson and more — all solo or in small ensembles.

Fresh Air rock critic Ken Tucker reviews the Waco Brothers' album Waco Express: Live and Kickin' at Schubas Tavern. It's the seventh album from the Chicago cowpunk outfit, but only its first live disc.

The band R.E.M. has released its first album in four years, Accelerate. Critics have been describing the disc as a "comeback," saying it's the band's best album in ages. Michael Stipe, Peter Buck and Mike Mills join Terry Gross for a conversation.

Julie Andrews has spent her life in the public eye, but she's never had much to say about her life before stardom — until now. The Sound of Music star joins Terry Gross to discuss her new memoir.

Fresh Air's film critic says the new Rolling Stones concert film doesn't quite penetrate the band's m--teries — but that the director is a master of style, and the band is tighter than ever.

Jules Dassin, an American filmmaker who worked in Europe for nearly 30 years, died this week in Athens, Greece. He left the U.S. in the early 1950s, blacklisted for his youthful membership in the Communist Party.

Actress Zooey Deschanel has made a move from the big screen to the indie-rock stage, recently co-founding the group She and Him. Deschanel joins Fresh Air to discuss her music and her band's new album, Volume One.

Fresh Air music critic Milo Miles reviews music from Russian rock group Auktyon. The band is currently on tour in the U.S. Auktyon, like some other Russian rock groups, found their footing during the censorship-free period of glasnost in the former Soviet Union under Mikhail Gorbachev.

In the past 20 years, Great Britain has produced a huge quantity of popular music that's gotten very little attention in the U.S. The Brit Box is a four-CD collection of British rock and pop, including songs by The Smiths, Supergrass, and The Boo Radleys.

Fresh Air rock critic Ken Tucker reviews Sixes & Sevens, the new album from singer-songwriter Adam Green. He co-wrote the song "Anyone Else But You" for the film Juno and co-founded the New York folk group The Moldy Peaches. Sixes & Sevens is his fifth solo album.

Fresh Air's world-music critic reviews The Mande Variations, the new CD from Malian kora player Toumani Diabate. Diabate says he descends from 71 generations of griots, or traditional song-storytellers.

Fresh Air's rock critic reviews Transmiticate, the debut album from Donita Sparks and the Stellar Moments. The Chicago-born Sparks co-founded the punk-grunge band L7.

On February 26, conductor Lorin Maazel led the New York Philharmonic in an unprecedented concert in Pyongyang, North Korea. It was the first time a major American orchestra performed in the communist country. The concert was broadcast nationwide.

Celebrated soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom — a pioneer, among other things, in the use of electronics in live jazz — has an inventively formatted new recording. Fresh Air's jazz critic has a listen.

Fresh Air's jazz critic reviews Mark Miller's High Hat, Trumpet, and Rhythm: The Life and Music of Valaida Snow. It's a biography of jazz singer and musician Valaida Snow, aka "Little Louis."

Musicians Stew and Heidi Rodewald speak with Fresh Air TV critic David Bianculli. They're the founders of a band they call The Negro Problem. Their new Broadway musical, Passing Strange, is an autobiographical look at Stew's journey through music.

Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews the self-titled debut album from the band Vampire Weekend. The quartet has drawn praise — and pointed criticism — for its hooky, globally influenced pop.

Fresh Air's classical music critic reviews an 80-disc set of recordings by Canadian pianist Glenn Gould. The collection, issued 25 years after Gould's death replicates the look of the original LPs.

Fresh Air's jazz critic reviews The Irrational Numbers, the new album from improvisation-oriented bassist Drew Gress. In truth, he says, the numbers the band plays are less "irrational" than pleasantly unpredictable.

Fresh Air's classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz reviews a new DVD release of a lesser-known Kurt Weill opera, The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahoganny.