Music

That's the title of an episode of Steve Rowland's documentary series "The Music Makers" featuring funk innovator George Clinton. We play this excerpt.

Rock historian Ed Ward tells us about the music genre known as techno -- a style with roots in black American music, but that took off in Europe.

Another segment from Ira Glass' new show, "This American Life": Chinese-American writer Sandra Tsing Loh with a story about her eccentric father who lives in LA. He was hitch-hiking one day and was picked up by actress Angelica Huston.

World Music critic Milo Miles tells us about the concert he recently attended by the albino singer from Mali, Salif Keita. His new album is "Folon" on the Mango label.

Rock historian Ed Ward on one of the forgotten heroines of rhythm and blues: Camille Howard. She played piano with Roy Milton and his sold Senders during the 1940s and 1950s. She also made a couple of hit recordings of her own. ("Camille Howard, Vol. 1: Rock Me Daddy" -- Speciality Records (Dist. by Fantasy, Berkeley, CA)

Rock Historian Ed Ward highlights the music of singer Mable John. She hit the black radio top ten chart in the 1960s with her song "Your Good Thing." Her music never caught on and not surprisingly most of her material never was released by Stax Records. But in 1993, Fantasy Records, assembled her music and released what turns out to be her first album.

Rock Historian Ed Ward looks at why "Pop" music has hit the charts around the world but remains buried in the subculture in America. "Pop" music, as it is known internationally, is not to be mistaken with Top 40. Ward says American radio stations in the late 1970s and early 80s didn't pick up the sound and a lot of the "Pop" music went unheard.

World Music Critic Milo Miles offers a tribute to the persistence and range of soul singer Solomon Burke. Miles reviews Burke's new CD "Live at the House of Blues."

World music critic Milo Miles remembers two musicians who were recently assassinated: Rachid Baba Ahmed, a producer and musician of Algerian Rai Music, and Tejano music's Selena.

Fresh Air rock historian Ed Ward takes a look at the record label, which emerged as a subsidiary of All Platinum Records. It promoted rap music soon after it first emerged in New York nightclubs.