Music

Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews the new album by David Byrne, called "David Byrne," (Luakabop/Sire)

Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews Jon Secada's "Heart, Soul and A Voice".

World music commentator Milo Miles showcases guitarist Steve Tibbetts.

Classical Music critic Lloyd Schwartz reviews some historic recordings by composer Benjamin Britten. (EMI Classics).

TV critic David Bianculli reviews the latest of MTV's "Unplugged" concert series, featuring Tony Bennett.

Beck is a 23 year-old hip/hop folk rocker, who goes by first name only and whose single, "Loser" has become the anthem for the underachievers of Generation X. His music has been described as "triumphantly anti-professional, idiot-savant music in which a heartfelt solo can be provided by kazoo as easily as guitar." Beck was part of the Los Angeles underground, with songs like "MTV Makes Me Want to Smoke Crack." Beck's first album, "Mellow Gold," (released on DGC) was recorded at home on four and eight-track recording equipment.

Sonny Sharrock was a guitarist. His genre was the free-jazz movement of the late 1960's Jon Pareles said in the New York Times that Sharrock's "guitar solos streaked and clanged, using blistering speed and raw noise to create music that had both the openness of jazz and power of rock." (Rebroadcast of 10/23/1991)

Jazz musicians Red Rodney and Sonny Sharrock. They're both important jazz figures who recently died. We will rebroadcast previous interviews with both Rodney was a trumpeter and band leader. He rose through the big band ranks and played in Charlie Parker's quintet. He was known as one of jazz's best improvisers. And he was known for regaling journalists with his stories-- often of dubious veracity. (Rebroadcast of 6/15/1990)

Ken Tucker reviews the new Pretenders album, "Last of the Independents".

World music commentator Milo Miles looks at old and new releases by Baden Powell, a guitarist associated with Bossa Nova.

Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead reviews a new collection of Jelly Roll Morton recordings: "Jelly Roll Morton: Library of Congress Recordings" (Rounder records, 4 volumes).

Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews the new Boz Scaggs record, "Some Change" (Virgin).

Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz reviews a new CD. It's a reissue from The Hollywood String Quartet, a chamber group made up of studio musicians who wanted to perform the classics. (on the Testament label).

Songwriter Stephen Sondheim. Last fall he gave a talk at the Museum of Television and Radio in New York City. We broadcast that talk. Sondheim's latest work, "Passion," opens tonight.

Texas-born musician and Nashville songwriter Billy Joe Shaver. At 54, he plays with his son in a band called "Shaver" -- their new album is "Tramp on Your Street" (Zoo/Praxis), his first recording in ten years. Shaver's songs, as recorded by Waylon Jennings on the 1973 "Honky Tonk Heroes" album, began the "outlaw" movement in country music. Since then, his songs have been recorded by Elvis Presley, Willie Nelson, and Johnny Cash.

Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead reviews "Revelation" the new album by 30-year old pianist Cyrus Chestnut (On the Atlantic Jazz label).

Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews Hole's album "Live Through This."

Ted Hawkins is a singer, a songwriter, and a guitarist who for almost 30 years was a street musician in L.A. His music isn't the blues though he's qualified to sing them: he grew up in poverty in Mississippi, his mother was a prostitute, he never knew his father. As a teenager, Hawkins spent time in jail. His first two marriages ended quickly: one was annulled, his second wife died two months into the marriage.

Singer, songwriter, guitar player, Dan Penn. Penn has written soul music classics--"Do Right Woman," "Cry Like a Baby," "Sweet Inspiration," "I'm Your Puppet," for example. His compositions have been made famous by the likes of Aretha Franklin, James Carr, Percy Sledge, Solomon Burke and Otis Redding. Penn left his tiny hometown of Vernon, Alabama when he was sixteen. . . a white kid, singing like Ray Charles and in love with black music.

Milo Miles, world music commentator, reviews "Boto," a debut album by Lokua Kanza on the French label Night and Day.