Music

Rock historian Ed Ward looks at Smokey Robinson's early recordings, when he was the lead singer of Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, and one of Motown's top acts.

Jazz Critic Kevin Whitehead reviews "Shades," the new album by pianist Andrew Hill.

American operatic baritone Sherrill Milnes. Milnes, who has sung in most of the world's major opera houses, is known primarily as a Verdi and Puccini specialist.

Polka player Guy Klucevsek. Klucevsek grew up in western Pennsylvania, a hotbed of polka playing. He'll perform "Ain't Nothing But a Polka," an excerpt from his work "Polka From the Fringe."

Rock Critic Ken Tucker will review "Babylon and On," by the British group Squeeze.

Classical Music Critic Lloyd Schwartz will review the new album by cellist Yo Yo Ma.

Rock historian Ed Ward will look at the spiritual struggles of veteran rocker Jerry Lee Lewis and what role they played in his music.

Jazz Critic Kevin Whitehead will review the new album by drummer Marvin "Smitty" Smith.

Singer Ian Whitcomb will take us back to the Tin Pan Alley era.

Rock Critic Ken Tucker will review two albums, "Romeo's Escape," by Dave Alvin, and "The Lonesome Jubilee," by John Cougar Mellencamp.

Dave Harrington, founder of first violinist of the Kronos Quartet, the avant-garde chamber group that's meeting with mainstream success.

Classical Music Critic Lloyd Schwartz will review the discography of soprano Maria Callas, including several recordings now available on CD.

Rock historian Ed Ward will profile the evolution of Chuck Berry's best known song, "Maybelline."

Jazz Critic Kevin Whitehead will review a reissue of the 1959 album, "Ellington Jazz Party." His review includes a discussion of the controversial biography of Duke Ellington by James Lincoln Collier, controversial because Collier alleges that true credit for many of Ellington's most famous tunes belongs to his band members.

Guest commentator Randall Grass pays tribute to reggae superstar Peter Tosh, who was killed in a robbery last weekend in Jamaica.

Rock Critic Ken Tucker on American guitarist Tom Verlaine, better known throughout Europe than his native country.

On the anniversary of soprano Maria Callas' death, classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz will review two new video cassettes of televised performances Callas gave in Hamburg, Germany in 1959 and 1962.

Rock historian Ed Ward will profile the career of Esquerita, a gay, black piano player whose flamboyant style (and hairdoo) was an inspiration to Little Richard.

Jazz Critic Kevin Whitehead will review a new album by clarinetist Bill Easley, and discuss the apparent resurgence of the instrument.

Folk singer Garnet Rogers will play a song which sets to music a poem by Australian Henry Lawson.