Jazz Critic Kevin Whitehead reviews "Repercussions," the British documentary series on African and Afro-American music. One segment features American jazz drummer Max Roach; another highlights the Los Angeles rhythm-and-blues scene and "highlife" musicians from Ghana. The series is now available on home video.
Film Director Louis Malle. He made his mark in French New Wave Cinema with such films as "Murmur of the Heart" and "Lacombe Lucien." More recently he has been working in the U.S. making films such as "Atlantic City" and "My Dinner with Andre." His latest film, "Au Revoir Les Enfants," is a reflection on his childhood.
Rita Mae Brown, author of the classic feminist novels Rubyfruit Jungle and Southern Discomfort. Her other novels include High Hearts and Six of One. Her latest work, Starting From Scratch: A Different Kind of Writer's Manual, shares with writers her own tips and techniques.
Critic-at-Large Laurie Stone explores the humor of Rodney Dangerfield, the comic who has built a career on getting no respect. Dangerfield is now performing on Broadway.
Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews "The Talking Animals," the new album by singer, songwriter and record producer T-Bone Burnett. Burnett has produced the work of musicians like Marshall Crenshaw, Los Lobos, Roy Orbison and Elvis Costello. In 1975, Burnett travelled and performed with Bob Dylan's "Rolling Thunder Review."
A live concert with Kenny Davern, one of the greatest living clarinetist playing traditional jazz. Davern will perform with guitarist Howard Alden and bassist Phil Flanigan.
Film critic Stephen Schiff reviews "Shoot To Kill," the thriller that stars Sidney Poitier and Tom Berenger. The plot has Poitier, an urban FBI agent, forced into an alliance with an embittered trail guide played by Tom Berenger as they track a killer in the mountains of the Pacific Northwest.
Peter Kornbluh, an information analyst with the National Security Archive in Washington, D.C. Kornbluh is the co-editor of Low Intensity Warfare, an analysis of the numerous counter-insurgency operations the United States is engaged in around the world. Low Intensity Warfare looks at the future of American war-fighting capabilities as they are reoriented toward unconventional conflicts in the Third World.
Mike McAlary, a reporter for the New York paper Newsday. His book Buddy Boys reveals the drama behind one of the biggest New York City police corruption scandals since Serpico. Buddy Boys is the story of how two corrupt cops, Harry Winter and Tony Magno, consented to inform on fellow officers who were routinely robbing drug dealers and then selling the drugs.
Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz reviews a 1986 recording of a live performance of Leonard Bernstein's opera "A Quiet Place," the sequel to "Trouble in Tahiti." "A Quiet Place" traces what happened to the characters introduced in "Trouble in Tahiti," a satiric look at marriage and life in the suburbs.
Black South African jazz singer Sathima Bea Benjamin. She's led many groups and has also recorded with her husband, composer and pianist Abdullah Ibrahim, also known as "Dollar Brand."
Fresh Air's classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz. It's part of our continuing series of conversations with Fresh Air's contributors. Schwartz is the classical music editor of the Boston Phoenix and writes for The Atlantic magazine and Vanity Fair. Schwartz was the winner of the 1987 ASCAP Deems Taylor for music criticism.
Arlene Violet, the first female state attorney general in the country. She was also the first nun in Rhode Island to graduate from law school. She has sued a bishop, investigated corrupt judges, retried Claus Von Bulow and the earned the nickname "Attila the Nun." She's written an autobiography titled Convictions.
Jazz Critic Kevin Whitehead reviews the work of Kansas City pianist Jay McShann. As a big band leader in the 40s and 50s, McShann helped start the careers of jazz stars like Charlie Parker and Big Joe Turner. Kevin reviews a reissue of a 1972 album, "Going to Kansas City."
Television Critic David Bianculli previews the HBO spoof of political campaigns, "Tanner 88: The Dark Horse." Unlike earlier fabricated campaigns like "Pat Paulsen for President," "Tanner 88" takes its politics seriously. The script is written by "Doonesbury" cartoonist Garry Trudeau, and the direction is by Robert Altman.
Dr. Robert Thurman, the first American to be ordained as a Tibetan Buddhist monk. He later returned to the United States and established The Institute for Buddhist Studies at the University of Massachusetts. He visited Tibet in the fall of 1987 and is now setting up a Tibet House in New York City.
