Terry Gross

Irwin Blye is a private investigator who has coauthored a book about his trade. He joins Fresh Air to talk about what his day-to-day work looks like--in contrast to the detectives of novels and films.

The prolific Modern Jazz Quartet returns with a new album featuring orchestration written for the New York Chamber Symphony. Jazz critic Francis Davis says the music lives up the Olympian standard to which he holds the group.

Former New York Times reporter Joyce Maynard moved to New Hampshire to start a family, where she started her Domestic Affairs column, which examines her new life as a writer and mother. A book of the same name has just been published.

Michael Bennett won a Pulitzer Prize for the musical "A Chorus Line," which he conceived, choreographed, and directed. He recently died from complications related to AIDS.

Sam Charters is a white northerner who studies the history black southern music. He moved to Louisiana to learn about forgotten jazz players and make field recordings of unknown blues musicians.

Musician Marty Grosz returns to Fresh Air to discuss the role of the rhythm guitarist in jazz, particularly in the early days of big bands. He sings two songs to illustrate the technique.

Journalist Michael Hamburger took a break from his career to work as a caddy on a professional golf tour. His book, The Green Road Home, details what was expected of him, from carrying bags to providing emotional support.

Film critic Stephen Schiff says that Full Metal Jacket, about Marines training for and serving in the Vietnam War, is bleak and stylized, but suffers from a lack of developed characters -- a Kubrick trademark better deployed in 2001 and Dr. Strangelove.

As a teenager at the beginning of her folk career, Joan Baez played mostly sad, traditional songs. She later became an icon to teenage girls in the 1960s, played with Bob Dylan, and pursued political activism.

Jody Pinto is an installation artist whose work is inspired by the contours of the human body. Her newest piece, Fingerspan, is a bridge that extends throughout Philadelphia's Fairmount Park. It is her first major permanent work.