Music

New Orleans pianist and singer Mac Rebennack, a.k.a. Dr. John, performs the last segment of a seven-part performance series. Up to now he's payed homage to other New Orleans musicians, like Professor Longhair and Louis Armstrong. But this time he plays his own music. He calls it "homegrown Dr. John the Night Tripper Music."

Rock Critic Ken Tucker reviews "Crossroads," the 2-CD, 73-song retrospective of the 25-year career of British guitarist Eric Clapton. The package includes previously unreleased material.

Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz reviews a 1939 live performance of the Bloch Violin Concerto performed by the Hungarian soloist Joseph Szigeti and conducted by Willem Mengelberg.

British conductor Simon Rattle. While Rattle has won acclaim for his guest conducting in America and Europe, he is best known for the success of his City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Rattle's success has created a new legitimacy in England for regional orchestras. The orchestra is now touring in America.

Language commentator Geoffrey Nunberg looks back on the long nights he spent in a private club in Rome where the only requirement for membership was that you be a native-English speaker. He reflects on how the language brought together people who otherwise had nothing in common.

Rock historian Ed Ward takes on the notion that old-time rock and roll had no message or meaning, that it was simply fun. This is the message that the purveyors of collections of 50s and 60s hits are conveying in ads that recall the "fun" of the era without also evoking the harsher realities.

Rock historian Ed Ward profiles the work of TK Productions, the Miami recording company that in the mid-70s brought out acts like K.C. and the Sunshine Band ("That's the Way I Like it" and "Get Down Tonight"), George McRae ("Rock Your Baby") and Betty Wright ("Where is the Love"), musicians who combined classic southern rhythm and blues with the up-tempo beat of disco.

Jazz Critic Kevin Whitehead pays tribute to bandleader and arranger Gil Evans, who died on March 20. A reissue of Evans' music from the early 60s has just been released, and Whitehead uses that record to comment on Evans' varied contribution over the course of his 40-year career.

New Orleans pianist and singer Mac Rebennack (also known as Dr. John) plays two songs recently made popular by other New Orleans artists. This is part six of a seven-part performance series.

Comic Sandra Bernhard. She's best known for her appearances on "Late Night With David Letterman" and in the Martin Scorsese film "The King of Comedy." She's now starring in the Off-Broadway one-woman show "Without You I'm Nothing," that is part stand-up comedy, part satire on the "women of rock and roll."

Rock Critic Ken Tucker reviews "I'm Your Man," the new Leonard Cohen album.

Film critic Stephen Schiff reviews "The Manchurian Candidate," starring Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey and Janet Leigh. The film was originally produced in 1962 but was never distributed because of a squabble between Sinatra, who owned the rights to the film, and the producers.

Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz reviews the first two compact discs of Stravinsky conducting his own music. Included are two of Stravinsky's most accessible works, "The Rite of Spring" and "Petrushka." Also included are three abstract scores, "Symphony in C," "Symphony in Three Movements," and "Symphony of Psalms."

Folk singer Bill Staines gives an introductory lesson in yodeling.

Pianist Ursula Oppens. She's widely regarded as one of the leading interpreters of new music. Many contemporary composers, like John Adams, have written works for her.

Rock historian Ed Ward profiles Alan Freed, one of the most famous, and most notorious, disc jockeys of the 50s and 60s. Freed was one of the first disc jockeys on a mainstream station (WJW in Cleveland) to play the black rhythm and blues that was the foundation of early rock and roll.

Tango innovator Astor Piazzolla. Since the early 60s, Piazzolla has been leading groups that play an updated tango that connects this Argentinian form with the musical innovations from Europe and America, both classical and contemporary. The adjustments have earned him the enmity of Argentinians, and for most of the 70s he lived in France where he wrote film scores. Piazzolla is a classically trained composer who wrote symphonies and studied with Nadia Boulanger, the renown French instructor of composition.

Jazz singer Chris Connor. She was best known for the work she did during a brief stint with the Stan Kenton band. Connor recorded sparingly throughout the 70s and for many jazz fans it was as though she ended her career. She's now performing again and has just completed work on a new album.

Jazz Critic Kevin Whitehead reviews "She's a Great Great Girl," the second album from singer Daryl Sherman.

New Orleans pianist and singer Mac Rebennack pays tribute to one of his own, the New Orleans pianist and singer Cousin Joe. This is the fifth of a seven-part performance series with Rebennack, who is also known as Dr. John.