Music

This Christmas week we rebroadcast our series on American popular song, and begin with the late lyricist Dorothy Fields. Born in 1905, she was the only woman in the pre-rock era to sustain major critical and popular acclaim as a songwriter. First, singer Becky Kilgore and pianist Dave Frishberg perform music by Dorothy Fields. Biographer Deborah Grace Winer talks about Fields life and music. Winer is author of On the Sunny Side of the Street: The Life and Lyrics of Dorothy Fields. Philip Furia talks specifically about the lyrics Dorothy Fields wrote.

Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews Restless Night, the new CD from singer-songwriter Julianna Raye.

Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz reviews Pierre Boulez conducting Wagners Ring Cycle on DVD (Universal) and works by Stravinsky, Debussy, and Berg on two DVDs (Image).

World music critic Milo Miles reviews the 3 CD set, The Velvet Underground Bootleg Series, Vol. 1: The Quine Tapes. Its music recorded in 1969 by Robert Quine who later became part of the New York punk rock scene in the 1970s.

Will Smith is starring in the new film Ali as fighter Muhammad Ali. The film begins in 1964, the year that Cassius Clay became world heavyweight champion, announced his conversion to Islam, and took on the name Muhammad Ali. The film is directed and co-written by Michael Mann who also made The Insider. Smith also starred in the films The Legend of Bagger Vance, Men In Black, Independence Day, and Six Degrees of Separation. Smith got his start as a rapper, making his first record in high school.

Blues singer Rufus Thomas has died at the age of 84. Wel play back several songs and an interview from the 1997 Chicago Blues Festival. Thomas was best known for novelty dance tunes like Walking the Dog and Do the Funky Chicken. In 1953 Thomas recorded Bear Cat, the answer to Big Mama Thornton Hound Dog. It became Sun Recordsfirst hit. In the sixties, Thomas became one of the founding performers for Stax Records.

Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews Missundaztood (Arista) the new album by Pink.

Composer Aaron Jay Kernis is one of the youngest composers to win the Pulitzer Prize. This Saturday, his latest composition will be performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra as part of the grand opening of the Kimmel Center, Philadelphia's new concert hall. The piece was commissioned specifically for the event. The Walt Disney Company has commissioned a piece by Kernis. His many awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship, an NEA grant, a New York Foundation for the Arts award, and two Grammy nominations. Kernis was born in Philadelphia and is 41 years old.

Classical Music Critic Lloyd Schwartz previews the Great Performances special The Art of Violin, airing on PBS stations tonight. The program is also available on DVD. For more information, visit The Art of Violin Web site.

Actress Angie Dickinson. She played an undercover cop in the TV series Police Woman from 1974-78. Her film roles include Dressed to Kill, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, Pretty Maids all in a Row, and Ocean Eleven which she made in 1960 with the rat pack: Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis Jr.

Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews three new re-issues from the LA band X.

Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead reviews the new box set, Artie Shaw: Self Portrait (RCA/Bluebird). The five-CD box set of Shaws music was edited by Shaw himself.

An interview with hip-hop entrepreneur Russell Simmons.

Jazz trumpeter Steven Bernstein. With his quartet, Sex Mob, hes just released a new CD which pays homage to the music of James Bond films. Its called Sex Mob Does Bond (ropeadope records) and is the sextets third album. Bernstein also heads two other groups: Diaspora Soul which specializes in performing versions of ancient Jewish melodies, and Millennial Territory Orchestra with which he explores jazz from the 1920s and 1930s.

Music critic Milo Miles reviews the new Grateful Dead box set.

Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz brings us classical music news from Boston. Seiji Ozawa is leaving the Boston Symphony Orchestra after 29 years as conductor. James Levine will replace him. Also, Lloyd will explain how the events of September 11th have changed the BSOs programming.

Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews Is This It, the debut CD of the New York quintet, The Strokes.

Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead reviews Up Popped the Two Lips, one of two new records by composer, saxophonist and flutist Henry Threadgill. Threadgill recorded the album with a new sextet called Zooid.

Film critic John Powers reviews Heist, written and directed by David Mamet and co-starring Ricky Jay. Also starring are Gene Hackman, Danny DeVito and Delroy Lindo.

Musician, producer, arranger, composer Quincy Jones has a new autobiography, Q: The Autobiography of Quincy Jones, (Doubleday) and a 4-CD boxset collecting his work, Q: The Musical Biography of Quincy Jones (Rhino). In his fifty year career hes worked with just about anyone who is anybody in the music business. As a teenager he played backup for Billie Holiday, along with his 16 year old friend, Ray Charles. At 18 he began playing the trumpet in Lionel Hamptons band beside Clifford Brown.