Terry Gross

Frank Morgan, a bebop-jazz sax player who modeled his playing style after Charlie Parker's, died Dec. 14 at age 73. After some early successes, Morgan succumbed to heroin addiction, which led to 30 years of crime and imprisonment — and an absence from the stage. But while he was in jail, Morgan did play with other inmates; most famously, he and Art Pepper formed a small ensemble at San Quentin. The Washington Post reports: "Once asked why so many jazz musicians became addicts, [Morgan] replied: 'It's about being hip.

Historian Allan Berube died this past Tuesday, at age 61. He wrote what's considered the definitive history of gay men and lesbians in the military. Coming Out Under Fire was published in 1990, and a documentary based on the book was released in 1994. The idea for the book sprang from a box of letters recovered from a Dumpster. The correspondence among gay soldiers led to dozens of interviews about homosexual life in the military. Berube himself came out in 1969 and went on to found the San Francisco Lesbian and Gay History Project.

Bettye LaVette recorded her first hit, "My Man — He's a Lovin' Man," at the age of 16. She toured with Ben E. King, Barbara Lynn and Otis Redding. And now she's being crowned the Comeback Queen for her recent albums, I've Got My Own Hell to Raise, which came out in 2005, and her recent The Scene of the Crime. LaVette recorded The Scene of the Crime at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Ala., with the Southern rock band Drive-By Truckers and the legendary session musician and songwriter Spooner Oldham.