Terry Gross

Robert McCrum suffered a stroke in 1995 at the young age of 42. He has written in detail about his experience and his recovery. Terry Gross talks with McCrum and his wife Sarah Lyall who was key in his recovery. His memoir "My Year Off: Recovering Life After a Stroke" is now in paperback. (REBROADCAST. ORIGINALLY AIRED 10/12/98.)

Jazz bassist Charlie Haden. His newest release with his Quartet West is "The Art of The Song" (Verve). Haden formed the quartet to play the music of the 1940s and early 50s. He's worked with jazz musicians Art Pepper, Paul Bley, Ornette Coleman. And he's recorded with many artists including Abbey Lincoln, Bill Frisell, Joshua Redman, Rick Lee Jones, and others.

We remember jazz musician Art Farmer. He died on Monday at the age of 71 from heart failure. Farmer was an important second-generation be-bop musician, and also known for his warm tone and lovely ballads on the trumpet and fluegelhorn. He worked with bands led by Wardell Gray, Horace Silver, and Gerry Mulligan. In the 1950s he formed the Jazztet, a sextet with saxophonist Benny Golson, and they wrote many compositions together. (REBROADCAST from 7/21/87)

Bassist and singer Josh Haden is Charlie's son. After years of playing punk, he founded the trio "Spain" and their 1995 debut album "Blue Moods of Spain" was critically acclaimed. Their new album is "She Haunts My Dreams" (Restless Records). The music on their new CD has been described as "languid," "melancholy" and "cabaret-ready country music."

Jazz bassist Charlie Haden. His newest release with his Quartet West is "The Art of The Song" (Verve). Haden formed the quartet to play the music of the 1940s and early 50s. He's worked with jazz musicians Art Pepper, Paul Bley, Ornette Coleman. And he's recorded with many artists including Abbey Lincoln, Bill Frisell, Joshua Redman, Rick Lee Jones, and others.

Eric Idle was one of the six original members of Monty Python's Flying Circus which, by the way, celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. He wrote many of the songs from the show like, "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life." Since then, Idle has written a number of books. His latest is a comic science-fiction thriller, "The Road to Mars: A Post-Modem Novel." (Pantheon books)

Screenwriter and director Audrey Wells. She is making her directorial debut with the new film "Guinevere" starring Stephen Rea and Sarah Polley. The film is about a mentor relationship between an older man and a young woman, and the needs and insecurities that compel them. Wells also wrote the screenplay for "The Truth about Cats and Dogs."

Former mail order magnate J. Peterman. His text-heavy apparel catalogs spun stories of adventure, and earned him a place as a fictional character on the hit T-V series "Seinfeld." But his business failed, and now he's written an article in the current issue of "The Harvard Business Review" to tell what happened.

Writer Edmund Morris. His biography of former president Ronald Reagan, "Dutch," (Random House) has garnered a lot of controversy. Morris uses a fictional narrator to tell much of the story, taking unprecedented artistic liberties. This is the first biography authorized by a sitting president, and it took Morris fourteen years to finally complete the work. Morris, a South African by birth, is the author of "The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt," which won the Pulitzer Prize and the American Book Award. He is currently at work on a second volume of the Roosevelt biography.

Former president Jimmy Carter turns 75 today. We celebrate by rebroadcasting excerpts of several of his interviews in which he discusses his faith, his life in politics, and his love of poetry. His books related to these topics are: "Always a Reckoning: and other Poems" (Random House, 1995), "Turning Point: A Candidate, A State, and a Nation Come of Age" (Time Books, 1993), and "Living Faith" (Times Books, 1996). (Carter's interviews are rebroadcast from 1/12/93, 1/17/95, 12/25/96).