Tribute/Appreciation

Rock historian Ed Ward pays tribute to Otis Redding.

Singer and Songwriter Arthur Alexander died today. He had only recently begun performing again after a twenty year break. We remember him.

Jazz critic Kevin White pays tribute to Ella Fitzgerald who turns 75 this Sunday. He argues that there are two versions of the jazz singer -- an interpreter of ballads and standards, the other a "superhuman" scat singer.

Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead pays tribute to the singer, who died last Monday.

Book critic John Leonard considers the vital role book translators have on literature on the occasion of the death of translator Ralph Manheim.

Critic Maureen Corrigan pays tribute to horror writer H. P. Lovecraft, who she says in the true inheritor of Edgar Allen Poe.

Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz remembers the great American singer, who died earlier this month at the age of 76. Unfortunately, few of her recordings are currently available.

Jazz tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon was one of the creators of bop and one of the most influential players of the 1940s and 1950s. Gordon received a Best Actor Academy Award nomination for his role in the 1986 film Round Midnight. He died this morning of kidney failure. Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead joins the show to remember Gordon.

The recent suicide of rocker Del Shannon triggered rock historian Ed Ward's reflections on his early fame and later obscurity. Shannon's fame came with his 1960 hit, "Runaway."

On the 25th anniversary of the death of Nat King Cole, jazz critic Kevin Whitehead has an appreciation of the well-known singer, and he takes a look at Cole's often overlooked skills as a jazz pianist. (By the way, Nat King Cole actually died on February 15th, but we're running the piece today, a couple of days early).