Music

Art and Aaron Neville are part of the New Orleans funk and rhythm and blues band The Neville Brothers. Art has been performing since 1954 when his "Mardi Gras Mambo" became a hit. The song remains a Mardi Gras standard. Aaron had a hit in 1966 with the song "Tell It Like It Is." The brothers' latest album "Neville-lization."

Jazz singer Abbey Lincoln began her career in the 1950s with a seductive image singing romantic ballads. Her image changed in the late 1950s after she met her drummer Max Roach, whom she later married, and who introduced her to modern jazz and the emerging black conscious movement. Lincoln also acted in the 1960s, appearing in movies and television. Lincoln's latest album is "Talking to the Sun."

Ellie Greenwich is a songwriter known for her pop songs of the 1960s like "Be My Baby" and "Do Wah Diddy Diddy." Greenwich worked with composers Leiber and Stoller, producer Phil Spector, and co-wrote many of her hits with her ex-husband Jeff Barry. During much of the 1970s, Greenwich wrote, produced, and performed commercial jingles before experiencing a career resurgence in the 1980s. A revue of her songs "Leader of Pack," premiered in New York and will go on a national tour.

Dennis Russell Davies is a conductor known for his dedication to performing new music and innovative programs. Davies is the co-founder and principal conductor for the American Composers Orchestra and the conductor of the Saratoga Performing Arts Center of New York, the summer home of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Davies lives in West Germany and is about to assume the position of the General Music Director of the City of Bonn.

Composer Steve Reich, one of the fathers of minimalist music, discusses the cross-cultural influences on his work from African drumming to Jewish cantorial singing. His latest composition is "Desert Music" which features the poems of William Carlos Williams.

Taj Mahal is a musician known for his blues songs. Later in his career, he would incorporate African, Caribbean, and Latin influences into his music. His records appeal to blues, rock, and folk audiences, and a compilation of his work, "The Best of Taj Mahal," has recently been published. Mahal is in Philadelphia to perform at the Tower Theater.

Yo-Yo Ma is a cellist who is one of the most prominent classical musicians today. Born in Paris and raised in New York, Ma's first teacher was his father. Ma graduated from high school at 15 and studied at Juliard for a year before attending Harvard. Ma joins the show to discuss his life and career.

Nelson George is a music writer who is the author of the best-selling "The Michael Jackson Story," and the black music editor for Billboard magazine. His latest book, "Where Did Our Love Go?," is a history of the black-owned company Motown Records. Motown employed a stable of writers, producers, singers, and studio musicians who created what became known as "the Motown sound." This soul sound appealed to both black and white audiences. George argues that that the company's move from Detroit to Los Angeles caused it to lose its sound.

Nick Spitzer is a folklorist who worked for the State of Louisiana for six years, and now works at the Smithsonian. Spitzer has also hosted several radio programs and recently produced the film "Zydeco: Creole Music and Culture in Rural Louisiana" and helped produce the album "Zodico: Louisian Créole Music." Spitzer joins the show to discuss and share jazz music from New Orleans, with a focus on Mardi Gras music and lesser known styles. (INTERVIEW BY BOB CARLIN)

Trumpeter Gregory Davis is a member of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band. The band was founded to play at funerals and other events in New Orleans. The group mixes traditional New Orleans jazz with funk and bebop. (Interview By Danny Miller)

On this edition of "The Record Ranch," with Bob Carlin, Carlin will share records of new-wave old-time music. (PARTIAL COMMENTARY)

Gary Graffman is a piano virtuoso who recently lost control of his right hand due to an injury incurred while playing years earlier. Before his injury, Graffman was known for his interpretation of Romantic composers. Graffman is currently learning and performing piano concertos for the left hand, teaching, and focusing on his art collecting hobby. Graffman also wrote a memoir "I Really Should Be Practicing."

Composer Steve Reich is known as a prominent "minimalist." Reich joins the show to discuss that term, his own career and influences, and whether he is the "safe" avant-garde composer.

Michael Bennett won a Pulitzer Prize for the musical "A Chorus Line," which he conceived, choreographed, and directed. He, himself, began his career as a Broadway dancer before choreographing musicals such as "Promises, Promises," "Company," and "Follies." Bennett's latest show is "Dreamgirls."

Tom and Dick Smothers are known as the "Smothers Brothers," a musical comedy duo that began by satirizing the folk acts of their day. Their popularity in the 1960s led to a Sunday night variety show. The show, with its topical content, often clashed with censors, and in 1969, the brothers were fired. The Smothers Brothers reunited in 1980.

Artie Shaw is a legendary big bandleader and clarinetist. His band was one of the most popular of the 1940s. Since then Shaw has written books, worked as a film producer, and retired from playing. in 1980 he organized a new band to play his works and arrangements.

Charlie Haden is one of the foremost bass players in contemporary jazz. In the 1950s Haden was a part of the first Ornette Coleman Quartet, which was the center of a jazz revolution. He has been involved with both avant-garde and mainstream jazz ever since. In the 1960s he formed the Liberation Music Orchestra, whose pointed political references were controversial. Haden re-formed the Orchestra in 1983 and their latest album is "The Ballad of the Fallen." Haden also plays with the band Old and New Dreams, made-up of Coleman alumni.

Cy Coleman started his career as a jazz pianist and club owner before moving on to writing pop songs that were recorded by artists such as Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett. Coleman then started composing Broadway musicals, including "Sweet Charity." Coleman now produces and owns a music publishing company.

Pianist and singer Bobby Short is a master of American popular song, singing classics from the likes of Porter, the Gershwins, Berlin, and Sondheim. He has the been playing at Cafe Carlyle in New York since 1968. He reached a new generation when he was in an ad for Revlon's Charlie perfume.

John Cage is an avant-garde musician known for his "chance compositions," which use "found" sounds. His music mixes Eastern philosophy with Western high-technology and eschews principles of harmony and melody. Cage is still a radical at 73.