Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead reviews the new album from tenor and soprano saxophonist Bill Pierce. It's called "Equilateral," and it's on Sunnyside Records.
Television critic David Bianculli previews a new ABC docudrama based on the Challenger disaster. It stars Karen Allen, Peter Boyle, and Barry Bostwick. Bianculli says the movie is helped by the limits it keeps.
Television critic David Bianculli previews "The Kennedys of Massachusetts." It's a 6-hour miniseries based on historian Doris Kearns Goodwin's bestseller, "The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys," about America's most prominent political family. The series premieres this Sunday on ABC.
A double interview today....first, Terry talks by telephone with South African musician Abdullah Ibrahim. Long an exile in this country, we find out how Ibrahim thinks this weekend's release of Nelson Mandela will change the artistic climate in South Africa.
Filmmaker Michael Roemer. In 1969, Roemer wrote, directed, and co-produced (with Robert Young) a movie called "The Plot Against Harry," about a small-time New York gangster trying to go straight. Now, 20 years later, the film is finally being released, and to huge critical acclaim. Roemer and Young also worked together on a number of documentaries and "Nothing But A Man," a 1964 film about blacks in the South. Since the 60s, Roemer has taught at Yale University and worked on several projects for public television.
Critic Maureen Corrigan reviews a new book, "Uncommon Genius: How Great Ideas Are Born." It examines creativity and how to nurture it by talking to some MacArthur Prize winners. The MacArthur Prize is an award of approximately $50,000 over 5 years to people who have demonstrated genius in their work.
Journalist Bryan Burrough. He co-wrote "Barbarians at the Gate," which chronicles the RJR Nabisco takeover, the largest leveraged buyout in Wall Street history. The deal was financed by Drexel Burnham Lambert, which filed this week for bankruptcy. Burrough and his co-author John Helyar covered the takeover from the beginning as reporters for the Wall Street Journal.
Cinematographer Ernest Dickerson. He's been director of photography for all of Spike Lee's films, starting when they were students together in New York University's graduate film program. Dickerson has also been cinematographer for John Sayles' "Brother From Another Planet" and "Raw: Eddy Murphy Live."
Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews "11," the latest album by the Smithereens. Although the album's been out for a few months, Ken says it's getting little notice, and it deserves a listen.
Soviet commentator Vladimir Pozner (poez-ner, not pahs-ner). Pozner is a fixture on American talk shows...an intelligent, affable, understandable interpreter of Soviet events and policies. Pozner was born in France, grew up in Brooklyn, and moved to the Soviet Union at age 19. In his new book, "Parting With Illusions," Pozner looks back on his life, talks about the Soviet Union under leaders from Stalin to Gorbechev, and discusses the recent "ending" of the cold war. (The book's published by the Atlantic Monthly Press).
Novelist and professor Valerie Martin. She's been called the "heir apparent to Edgar Allen Poe." She's taken the Robert Louis Stevenson classic tale of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and given it a new twist. Her new historical novel, "Mary Reilly," tells the story of Jekyll's descent into madness from the point of view of Mary, a Victorian maid in Jekyll's household. Mary escaped the squalor and brutality of the slums to become a servant. As she becomes Jekyll's confidant she's once again drawn into the underworld she sought to escape.
Dancer and choreographer Bill T. Jones. For years, Jones collaborated and performed with his partner/lover Arnie Zane. After Zane's death from AIDS in 1988, Jones has continued to dance with the company he and Zane formed. The company is based on a philosophy that disdains the formal training of ballet and draws on athleticism, discovery, and the beauty of the movements of "everyday people."
Journalist Itabari Njeri (it-tah-BAR-ay en-jerry). Her new book, "Every Good-bye Ain't Gone," is a touching and at times humorous memoir of growing up black in Harlem and Brooklyn during the 50s.
On the 25th anniversary of the death of Nat King Cole, jazz critic Kevin Whitehead has an appreciation of the well-known singer, and he takes a look at Cole's often overlooked skills as a jazz pianist. (By the way, Nat King Cole actually died on February 15th, but we're running the piece today, a couple of days early).
World music critic Milo Miles reviews the work of Israeli singer Ofra Haza. Haza's the closest thing to a world music "Superstar," with several very successful albums to her credit.
