Composition

Lou Barlow, whose group The Deluxx Folk Implosion perform the contemporary version of "I'm Just a Bill" on the new release of School House Rock.

French Composer Michel Legrand. He composed the score for the 1964 classic French film, " The Umbrellas of Cherbourg." In the film every bit of dialogue is sung to Legrand's music. The film has recently been restored; for years it was unavailable because no decent print existed.

We remember band leader and composer Mercer Ellington, the son of Duke Ellington. He perpetuated the big band tradition his father made famous as head of the Duke Ellington Band. When he was a young man, Mercer Ellington had hoped to break into his father's band on the saxophone. But after years of frustration, he could see that he would never crack the legendary Ellington reed section. He finally was accepted as a trombone player and later played french horn and trumpet. With the death of his father in 1974, Mercer Ellington took over his father's orchestra.

Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead reviews a new box-set of film music by Italian composer Ennio Morricone, "A Fistful of Film Music" (Rhino).

Composer Philip Glass. His latest work is a new score for the 1946 Jean Cocteau film adaptation of "La Belle et la Bête" ("Beauty and the Beast"). Glass's score includes four voices who sing a libretto, based on the screenplay. Glass has toured the live music-film event in Europe and the United States. One reviewer called it "a beautiful, superbly integrated work." (Time, Dec. 19, 1994). (The score is available on Nonesuch Records.)

From The Alloy Orchestra, composer and keyboardist Caleb Sampson. The band has gained a reputation for composing and performing exciting, percussive silent film scores. Their repertoire includes scores for "Metropolis," "Nosferatu," "Lonesome," and their newest, for the Russian classic "Man with a Movie Camera." The film has a "sneak preview" at the Telluride Film Festival in early September, and it premieres at the Pordenone Silent Film Festival in Italy in October. They have two CD's.

Jazz Critic Kevin Whitehead remembers the late Julius Hemphill, who died on Sunday. Hemphill, the saxophonist and composer, helped found the World Saxophone Quartet.

Cale was the violist, keyboardist and bassist of the 1960s avant garde band, The Velvet Underground. Since the breakup of the group in 1968, he has had a career as a solo artist. Most recently, he collaborated with former Velvet Underground member Lou Reed, on "Songs for Drella," the 1990 tribute to artist Andy Warhol. This past month, he released "Seducing Down the Door: A John Cale Collection," which is a compilation of his post-Velvet Underground solo recordings.

We pay tribute to Frank Zappa who died over the weekend with an excerpt of Terry's 1989 interview with him. (Rebroadcast of 1/17/1989)

Composer Anthony Davis's opera "X" based on the life of Malcolm X, and has just come out on CD. It premiered in 1986. Terry talks with David about what Malcolm X meant to him and why he decided to compose an opera on his life. Davis has received international recognition for his compositions as well as his performances as a solo pianist and the leader of the ensemble Episteme.