Jazz

The pianist, a member of one of the most remarkable families in jazz history, died Sunday. He was 91. Fresh Air remembers the jazz legend with highlights from an interview conducted in 2005.

In a transitional period between different groups with Miles Davis and Anthony Braxton and his fusion band, Return to Forever, Chick Corea recorded a series of solo piano improvisations in 1971. Those recordings and a 1983 follow-up have been reissued in a three-CD box set.

Dedicated and curious music fans are regularly finding new chapters in rock history from around the globe. Critic Milo Miles reviews one recent collection, a series of anthologies focusing on the lively story of vintage pop in Panama.

Jazz drummers leading their own bands often feature intricate rhythms and brisk, driving momentum. Paul Motian, with his slow tempos, loose timing and tunes that go with rainy days, is so self-effacing, he's almost an anti-drummer. A little rustle of brushes and the faint boom of a bass drum may be all he'll use to nudge the music on.

David Simon and Eric Overmyer met when they worked on the TV series Homicide: Life on the Streets. They also worked together on Simon's acclaimed HBO series The Wire. Now they have a new series called Treme — about the musicians and other locals rebuilding their lives after Hurricane Katrina.

After profiling Baltimore's citizens, politics and problems in the HBO series The Wire, David Simon heads south to New Orleans — to look at the city three months after Hurricane Katrina. TV Critic David Bianculli reviews the series, which he says is "like a haunting piece of jazz from the French Quarter."

In addition to newsreels, cartoon and coming attractions, movie studios used to show musical shorts before feature films. Warner Brothers has just released a six-DVD set of these shorts called Big Bands, Jazz and Swing. Classical musical critic Lloyd Schwartz says the new set is wroth checking out.

Hall doesn't often hog the spotlight on his debut album, Into the Light. He doesn't need to; he plays more stuff behind other musicians than some drummers do in a solo. Hall stays busy back there, exhorting and swinging the band, playing contrary rhythms, shifting his patterns and punctuating everybody else's solos.

Blending funk, hip-hop, and jazz sounds, the New Orleans-based band Galactic combines musical genres to create a new sound that they make their own. Critic Ken Tucker says heir newest album Ya-Ka-May is a true rhythmic pleasure.

Out 'n' In, the latest album from Empirical, is a tribute to the late musician Eric Dolphy. The record contains six original pieces that adopt Dolphy's style and adaptations of two songs from his album Out to Lunch!