Music

Musician Michael Feinstein chronicles his experience working as an archivist and cataloger for legendary songwriter Ira Gershwin. The book is presented through the stories of 12 of the Gershwin brothers' songs, including "Fascinating Rhythm," "The Man I Love" and "I Got Rhythm."

Among the most central pieces of the classical-music repertoire are the 16 string quartets Beethoven composed over the course of his career. For critic Lloyd Schwartz, these quartets, especially as recorded by the Budapest String Quartet, were crucial to his own musical upbringing.

Ed Ward connects the dots of the British band's eight studio albums, which were just collected in a box set.

For Miles, the better he knows how a tune works, the less he has to play to put it across

Sing the Delta is the roots-folk singer-songwriter's first album of new songs in 16 years.

The band's new Call Me Sylvia is as raucous as its debut, though it's slightly more self-conscious.

Ed Ward reviews the reissued catalog from the multiracial, multi-generational ska band.

Waging Heavy Peace is about his music, raising two sons with special needs, and his own medical conditions, which have included polio, epilepsy and a brain aneurysm.

The freewheeling saxophonist and his small group from the 1970s came together for a live concert in 2007 -- their first together in more than two decades. Now, a recording has been posthumously released on CD, and critic Kevin Whitehead says it's like they never went away.

The Analog Players Society provides some of the best evidence since the rise of Vampire Weekend that formerly exotic international music -- particularly African rhythms and accents -- has become an everyday part of modern popular tunes.

Ken Tucker says that Charmer is a song cycle about getting rid of a cynical frame of mind; about distancing yourself from people who are dragging you down.

Guaraldi had range, as well as an instrumental hit right when jazz was vanishing from AM radio.

The singer-songwriter and actor may not fit the country-music mold, but he carves out his own sound on hew new album, 3 Pears.

The jazz trio returns to covering classic rock, folk and pop tunes on its latest album, Where Do You Start. Fresh Air critic Kevin Whitehead reviews the band's take on Elvis Costello, Nick Drake, Sonny Rollins and more.

Critic Ken Tucker says that some songs on Tempest should less like concentrated efforts than outpourings of rambling thoughts; others are as precisely crafted as any Bob Dylan has written.

Memphis has been a music town since anyone can remember, and it's had places to record that music since there have been records. Some of its studies -- Sun, Stax and Hi -- are well-known, but American Studios produced its share of hits, and yet remains obscure.

Hal David, the Oscar- and Grammy-winning lyricist, died Saturday in Los Angeles. He was 91. David is best known for his many collaborations with composer Burt Bacharach between the late '50s and the mid-'70s.

Street Corner Symphonies is a 15-volume year-by-year survey of doo-wop by scholar Bill Dahl.

Despite its title, When I'm President isn't as political as Hunter's past couple of solo albums. Critic Ken Tucker says Hunter reachers back into rock's past while linking it firmly to the present.

Julio Cortazar's book Rayuela is expansive, smart, breezy, romantic and occasionally reminiscent of a disturbing dream. Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead says that Miguel Zenon and Laurent Coq's Rayuela-inspired album lands on all those squares.