Music

Singer/songwriter, guitarist Richard Thompson. He first became known for his work with "Fairport Convention." He's since gone solo and is known for his dark songs, which blend elements of British folk ballads and the blues. He's released a number of solo albums, including Mirror Blue and Rumor and Sigh. Rykodisc also compiled a retrospective of his work Watching the Dark: The History of Richard Thompson. Currently, Thompson is performing a show he calls "A Thousand Years of Pop Music," which includes British and American folk songs, jazz and pop.

Saxophonist Branford Marsalis. He's just released "Footsteps of Our Fathers," the debut release on the artist's own Marsalis Music label. In the nearly two decades that he has released solo albums, he's won two Grammy Awards and was nominated for a third in 1995. He was the first band leader for Jay Leno's "The Tonight Show" and appeared on the show from 1992-1995. In addition to the solo and ensemble records he's released, Marsalis has participated in various film scores as both composer and featured soloist.

Musicians Joe Hunter and Jack Ashford were part of the group of musicians known as the Funk Brothers whose sound defined Motown in the 1960s and 70s. They worked with such legendary performers as Diana Ross and the Supremes, the Temptations, Marvin Gaye, The Four Tops, Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson, The Miracles and many more. The Funk Brothers are the subject of the new documentary Standing in the Shadows of Motown.

Music Critic Milo Miles reviews the reissue of Michael Hurley's 1965 debut album, First Songs. It's been reissued under the title Blueberry Wine (Locust Label).

Jazz bassist Ron Carter has more than 2,000 recordings to his credit. From 1963-1968 he was part of the Miles Davis Quintet with Herbie Hancock, Tony Williams and Wayne Shorter. Over the years he's played with Randy Weston, Herbie Mann, Betty Carter, Eric Dolphy, Sony Rollins, McCoy Tyner and others. Carter's new CD is Stardust.

Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews It's all Relative: Tillis Sings Tillis, an album of country classic songs written by Mel Tillis and performed by his daughter, Pam Tillis.

TV Critic David Bianculli remembers Bruce Paltrow and Ellis Larkins.

Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead reviews Lost in the Stars (Nagel heyer) by the Ken Peplowski Quartet.

He's written a new biography of blues legend Muddy Waters who is credited with inventing electric blues and creating the template for the rock and roll band. The book is Can't Be Statisfied: The Life and Times of Muddy Waters. (Little, Brown). Gordon also produced and directed an accompanying documentary of the same name which will be shown as part of the PBS American Masters series next year. Gordon's other books are It Came From Memphis, and The King on the Road. He also produced the Al Green box set, Anthology.

Rock Critic Ken Tucker reviews the music of The Vines, Spoon, and Apples in Stereo.

Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead reviews trumpeter Steven Bernstein's new CD with the Sam Rivers Trio, Diaspora Blues (Tzadik label). He also mentions the reissue, Jewish Melodies in Jazztime by Terry Gibbs

Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews Home, the new CD from the country music trio the Dixie Chicks. This is their first new album since 1999.

Singer Linda Thompson is back performing after a long hiatus. She was formerly part of a British folk-rock duo with her husband, Richard Thompson. In 1985, Linda Thompson left the stage, diagnosed with hysterical dysphonia, a form of stage fright. Her new CD is called Fashionably Late and she collaborated with Richard and their son Teddy on the album's songs.

Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews Down in the Alley, the new CD from Alvin Youngblood Hart.

Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead reviews Modernistic (Blue Note) the new CD by jazz pianist Jason Moran.

It's been more than 40 years since David Bowie created the gender-bending Ziggy Stardust and released the now-classic album The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars. With it, Bowie helped invent glam-rock. In conversation with Fresh Air's Terry Gross from 2002, Bowie was in the midst of making the following year's Reality, and here talks about leaving characters in his songs, his love of Tibetan horns, and his childhood desire to write musicals and play saxophone in Little Richard's band.

Keyboard player and record producer Ray Manzarek talks about his experience playing in one of the most influential bands of the 1960s. The Doors disbanded after its lead singer Jim Morrison died in 1971. Since The Doors, Manzarek has produced four albums for the punk rock band X and recorded several solo albums. He also performs with Beat poet Michael McClure at nightclubs and on college campuses.

Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz reviews the new 13-CD collection of recordings by pianist Maurizio Pollini: Maurizio Pollini Edition

Guitarist, singer, songwriter Wayne Kramer. In the late 1960s he founded the MC5, a Detroit band considered to be the prototype for punk rock. By 1972 the band had burned out. In between then and now, Kramer did time in jail for drugs, teamed up with Don and David Was to found the group Was (Not Was), and began a solo career. His new solo album is Adult World.

Rock historian Ed Ward profiles Murco Records, an obscure label out of Shreveport, Louisiana