Music

Filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker. One of America's foremost documentary producers, Pennebaker has brought his cinéma verité approach to subjects ranging from Castro's Cuba, to Jimmy Carter's energy policy, to Bob Dylan's first tour of Britain. Music has been the source of much of Pennebaker's work. His films have featured the likes of Pablo Cassals, Van Cliburn, jazz singer Dave Lambert, rocker David Bowie, John Lennon and Yoko Ono.

A live concert with songwriter and pianist Charles Brown. Brown is credited with creating an expressive style of blues that blended rough Texas blues with the soft glamour of Hollywood. Between 1946 and 1952, Brown recorded 20 hits, nine on his own, the rest as part of Johnny Moore's Blazers. He is featured in a new PBS documentary on the history of rhythm and blues.

The prolific songwriter and performer has been living in Idaho, away from the public eye. Now she returns with a new, more rocking album. King joins Fresh Air to talk about dropping out college to pursue a music career, writing songs with her former husband Gerry Goffin for other artists, and becoming a solo artist.

Coppola has written the music for several films of his son, Francis Ford Coppola, including the Godfather I and II. He has written a new score for the silent film Napoleon; he'll soon conduct a live performance of that music during a screening at Radio City Music Hall.

The former Silly Wizard fiddler isn't surprised by the international success of his music. Cunningham says that he can even here echoes of Scottish sounds in traditional American music.

Part II of the Fresh Air interview with Danny Elfman. He talks about writing the score for Tim Burton's new Batman movie. He sees his film composing as entirely distinct from his work in the rock band Oingo Boingo. The different approaches, he says, serve both efforts.

Part one of the Fresh Air interview. Elfman is a rock musician who fronts the band Oingo Boingo. When Tim Burton hired him to write score for Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, Elfman had to teach himself to read music -- a skill he never needed in the past.

Staples' new album, Time Waits for No One, was produced by Prince. Early in life, she was discouraged from singing secular music, and later co-founded the gospel group The Staples Singers with members of her family.

Mickey Hart says his travels around the globe with the Grateful Dead have given him the chance to meet several accomplished musicians from non-Western cultures. He's produced several recordings of their performance, many of which have been released on the Rykodisc label.

Jazz critic KEVIN WHITEHEAD reviews a reissue of a MILES DAVIS album that was originally the soundtrack for Louis Malle's first feature film.