Jazz Critic Kevin Whitehead reviews "Bayou Magic," a new album by clarinetist Alvin Batiste. Since the 50s, Batiste has been a key figure in the modern jazz movement in New Orleans. Under the auspices of the State Department, he has toured the world extensively, and is also a teacher at Southern University in Baton Rouge, where his students have included Branford Marsalis and Donald Harrison.
Architect and writer Christopher Alexander. His philosophy of "every man an architect" holds that ordinary people are the best designers of their own homes and workplaces, and that intuition in design should be trusted ahead of reason. He has worked this position out in books like A Pattern Language and The Timeless Way of Building, books that have made him a leading figure in a continuing schism in the architectural community against the `glass box' syndrome of modern architecture. (Interview by Sedge Thomson)
Television critic David Bianculli reviews "Primetime Live," ABC's enormously hyped live, hour-long, primetime news program featuring Sam Donaldson and Diane Sawyer.
Grammy Award-winning blues singer John Hammond performs two songs by blues musician Robert Johnson in Fresh Air's weekly performance segment. Hammond has performed for nearly twenty years, and in that time his style has evolved from straight-forward, rural blues to a harder-edged, urban style.
Bill Joy. He's a founder and Vice President of Research and Development for Sun Microsystems, one of the most innovative and successful computer companies. He imagines the computer of 14 years from now, a machine he calls the "2001 computer." It will be a phenomenally fast machine (128,000 times the speed of current computers), with a memory capacity the equivalent of 300,000 books, all fitting into the size of a sugar cube. (Interview with Sedge Thomson)
Outdoorswoman and veteran river guide Kathleen Meyer. Her new book How to Shit in the Woods, examines in a non-Victorian way the hows and wheres of personal hygiene in the great outdoors. Behind the book's humorous tone and anecdotes is a serious issue - human waste, if not properly disposed, pollutes rivers and streams. (Interview by Sedge Thomson)
Pianist and singer Hadda Brooks. In the days following World War II, Brooks was a key figure in the West Coast jazz and blues scene. Her singing led to roles in movies and to a stint hosting a television show; she was the first black woman to earn that distinction. When her style of jazz and boogie woogie piano went into decline in the 50s, Brooks lived and performed overseas. She resumed her career in America in 1987, and was an immediate hit. She's currently appearing at Michael's Pub in New York City with singer Thelma Carpenter. (Interview by Sedge Thomson)
Actor Michael Murphy. Murphy's first work was on television when he was still a high school English teacher. He debuted on the TV series "Combat," and later acted on "Ben Casey," "Dr. Kildaire" and "Bonanza." The director for the "Combat" series was Robert Altman, with whom Murphy has had a long association. He later acted in many films by Robert Altman, including "M*A*S*H," "Brewster McCloud," "McCabe and Mrs.
Astronomer and science writer Timothy Ferris. His most recent book, Coming of Age in the Milky Way, is the story of how man discovered his place in the cosmos. The book was a surprise bestseller last year and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Critics hailed the book as a literary and scientific breakthrough that reads both as intellectual history and an adventure story. Ferris' first book, The Red Limit, was similarly praised for creating a new style of science book that combines the force of fact and detail with the grace of fiction writing.
Television producer and screenwriter Allan Burns. He co-created "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," "Rhoda," "He and She," "Lou Grant" and "The Munsters," a body of work that has earned him 8 Emmys. Burns has a new series this fall on NBC titled "FM." It's about the on-the-job and at home travails of a public radio program director. (Interview by Sedge Thomson)
Reporter and novelist Ron Taylor. For the last 20 years, Taylor has reported on California agriculture, focusing on the life of farm laborers. Taylor was the first reporter to focus on Cesar Chavez, the migrant laborer who spearheaded the movement for a farm workers union with highly publicized work stoppages and boycotts of California produce. Taylor has written three books on the subject of farm labor: Sweatshops in the Sun, The Kid Business, and Chavez and the Farm Workers.
Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz reviews a new release of performances of four violin concertos by Fritz Kreisler. Kreisler, an Austrian who died in 1962, was probably the most renown violinist in the world in the period between the two World Wars. The double compact-disc set, which also includes three shorter pieces, is released on the Music and Arts label.
Commentator Maureen Corrigan reviews The Real Thing, by Miles Orvell. Corrigan says the book is one of those works that attempts to explain just about everything in terms of one theory. Orwell's theory is that American culture has been driven by the tension between imitation and the desire for authenticity.
Rock historian Ed Ward looks back at the Woodstock Festival and tries to separate the facts of the 3-day event from the warp of nostalgia twenty years later.
Jazz Critic Kevin Whitehead profiles the young alto saxophonist Christopher Hollyday. While still in his teens, Hollyday toured with bandleader Maynard Ferguson and headlined at New York's Village Vanguard. Hollyday plays in the style of Charlie Parker, the great bop alto saxophonist.
Writer Phillip Hoose. In his new book, Necessities: Racial Barriers in American Sports, Hoose examines the role of blacks in sport, from why there has never been a black Olympic swimmer to the continued use of racial information by the scouting agencies that survey high school basketball players. Hoose began the book after the furor sparked by baseball executive Al Campanis' remark on national TV that blacks lacked `the necessities' to manage a major league baseball or football team. (Interview by Sedge Thomson)
Marine botanist Sylvia Earle. She's been described as one of the most intrepid divers in the history of underwater exploration. She's swum with humpback whales, explored the kelp forests off the coast of California, and dove into the trenches off the coasts of Hawaii where she once went to depths of 1,250 feet, which at the time was the deepest any human had dove without a connection to the surface.
