Composer Steve Reich is known as a prominent "minimalist." Reich joins the show to discuss that term, his own career and influences, and whether he is the "safe" avant-garde composer.
Composer Steve Reich, one of the fathers of minimalist music, discusses the cross-cultural influences on his work from African drumming to Jewish cantorial singing. His latest composition is "Desert Music" which features the poems of William Carlos Williams.
Adams is often associated with other minimalist composers like Philip Glass and Steve Reich. His new album, The Chairman Dances, features parts of his new opera-in-progress called Nixon in China.
Film Critic Stephen Schiff reviews "Cry Freedom," starring Kevin Kline as South African journalist Donald Woods, and Denzel Washington as anti-apartheid activist Stephen Biko. The movie portrays the friendship that developed between Woods, a white reporter, and Biko, one of the leading foes of apartheid. "Cry Freedom" is directed by Richard Attenborough.
Drummer and composer Bobby Previte. His music has been described as "... a blend of Charles Mingus' bluesy hoedowns and Steve Reich's trancelike minimalism." Previte began as a rock drummer and now composes in a wide variety of genres, from choral works and string quartets to film score and jazz. His new album is titled "Pushing the Envelope."
The minimalist composer's new piece, Different Trains, contrasts Reich's childhood experiences crossing the country by rail to visit his divorced parents with the memories of Holocaust survivors' journey to concentration camps. The music incorporates recordings of several interviews into the orchestration.
Part 2 of the Fresh Air interview with composer Steve Reich. He talks about a new compostion called Electric Counterpoint, written for guitarist Pat Metheney. Metheny pre-recorded ten tracks, then performed the solo part live.
Scott sang with Lionel Hampton's band in the late 1940s early 50s, and influenced such singers as Nancy Wilson, Marvin Gaye, and Stevie Wonder. Despite his talent, Scott has had a sporadic career marked by long periods of obscurity. His distinctive voice reaches into high registers, which many listeners early on mistook for a woman's. His new album is called "All the Way."
Steven Pinker, a psycholinguist at MIT and director of its Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, has a new book on how language works: "The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language" (Morrow). He argues that language is not simply a cultural invention taught by parents and schools, but a biological system, --an instinct-- partly learned, and partly innate. To Pinker, a three year old toddler is a "grammatical genius", capable of obeying adult rites of language, similar to web-spinning in spiders or sonar in bats.
Classical Music critic Lloyd Schwartz reviews a new album of opera overtures played on wind instruments, "Overture" by the Harmonie Ensemble of New York, conducted by Steve Richman (on the Music & Arts Programs of America label: 510-525-4583).
A live concert in the WHYY Forum with jazz clarinetist Don Byron and his "Bug Orchestra." On their new recording "Bug Music," they play the music of The Raymond Scott Quintette, John Kirby & His Orchestra, the Duke Ellington Orchestra -- and a lot of cartoon music. Byron has become best known for playing klezmer, but musically he's all over the map: he plays jazz with his Don Byron Quintet, modern classical music with the Semaphore quintet, and he toured Europe with Music for Six Musicians, an Afro-Cuban ensemble.
Rhythm and Blues singer Ruth Brown. She got her start in the 1940s, and influenced a whole generation of singers including Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Little Richard and Bonnie Raitt. Her hits include "Mama, He Treats Your Daughter Mean" and "Teardrops From My Eyes." Later she appeared in John Water's film "Hairspray" and in the Broadway hit "Black and Blue." In 1996 her autobiography was published, "Miss Rhythm"(Donald Fine Books) and this year she has a new CD, "R + B = Ruth Brown"
Raichlen's new book is "The Barbecue Bible" (Workman Publishing) which includes over 500 recipes which he collected in his worldwide travels researching and tasting the way foods are barbecued in other countries. His travels took him to The Caribbean, South America, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Australia. Raichlen wrote the award-winning cookbooks, "Miami Spice" and the "High-Flavor, Low-Fat" series.
Minimalist composer Steve Reich. He's considered one of our foremost living composers. There's a new CD "Reich Remixed" (Nonesuch) a dance album in which American, British, and Japanese DJ's pay tribute to Reich, by sampling and reassembling his music. Reich will be the subject of this summer's Lincoln Center Festival. And Reich's "Triple Quartet" written for and performed by the Kronos Quartet, will have its world premiere on May 22nd at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C.
Rhythm-and-blues singer Ruth Brown died last week at the age of 78 from complications following a heart attack. Brown got her start in the 1940s and influenced an entire generation of singers including Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Little Richard and Bonnie Raitt. Her hits include "Mama, He Treats Your Daughter Mean" and "Teardrops From My Eyes." Later, she appeared in John Waters' film Hairspray and in the Broadway hit Black and Blue. She published an autobiography, Miss Rhythm, in 1996. Rhythm." This interview originally aired on Dec. 22, 1997.
Steven Bach's biography Leni: The Life and Work of Leni Riefenstahl examines the filmmaker who celebrated the Nazi ideal and created the Third Reich's iconic images in Triumph of the Will and Olympiad. Bach details Riefenstahl's ruthless, opportunistic ambition, analyzes her "self-righteous entitlement," and explores her relationships with Hitler, Goebbels and Albert Speer. What emerges is a compulsively readable and scrupulously crafted work.