Music

In April of this year, just a month before the death of New Orleans jazz clarinetist Alvin Batiste, the Marsalis Music label celebrated him with one of its "Honors" discs. The recording — Batiste's first in more than a decade — paired the pioneering modern jazzman with younger musicians, including two of his students. Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead has a review.

British musician Jarvis Cocker founded the band Pulp at age 15; he made international headlines in 1996, when he stormed the stage in protest at a Michael Jackson concert at the BRIT awards in London. Lately he's been reunited with his father, who left the family when he was a child, denounced American Idol-style TV talent shows, and released a solo album, called simply Jarvis.

Pilgrimage is the posthumously issued recording from tenor sax player Michael Brecker, who died earlier this year due to leukemia. The album features jazz greats Herbie Hancock and Pat Metheny.

Fresh Air's rock critic takes a listen to the 21st solo album from the former Beatle.

McCartney, who turned 65 today, launched Memory Almost Full with a free concert in London earlier this month — back when he was 64. It's an occasionally reflective life-and-loves disc that ranges from an upbeat dance-party opener to a farewell-to-love track.

Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie, aka the folk-parody band Flight of the Conchords, hail from New Zealand and were named best alternative-comedy act at the 2005 U.S. Comedy Arts Festival. Now they're starring in an HBO series called, yes, Flight of the Conchords — which is, yes, about two transplanted New Zealanders living in New York City's Lower East side. It launches Sunday.

Country music singer Miranda Lambert returns with a second album, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. Her debut album, Kerosene, went platinum in 2005 and earned her a Grammy nomination.

A concert and conversation with Los Straitjackets, the Nashville-based indie-rock band that's made a name performing surf-rock classics from behind Mexican wrestling masks.

The group's latest album, Rock en Espanol, Vol. 1, features Spanish language versions of rock 'n' roll hits from the 1960s.

Tracks include "De Dia y de Noche" ("All Day and All Night"), popularized by the Kinks, "La Hiedra Venenosa" ("Poison Ivy"), made famous by the Coasters, and many more.

This interview first aired on June 11, 2007.

George Clooney and the gang return to Vegas and to the casino caper for this third installment in Steven Soderbergh's hit franchise.

While Ocean's Twelve was all over the place, this one's as elegant and streamlined as hero Danny Ocean. As the plotting gets knottier, Soderbergh's technique gets more fluid — the editing jazzier, the colors more luscious, the whip-pans more whiz-bang.

Michael Hearst, a founder of the band One Ring Zero, put out his Songs for Ice Cream Trucks CD mostly for fun. But he's been getting calls from ice-cream truck drivers who want to use them. Some of the instruments you'll hear on the collection include glockenspiel, electronic chord organ, melodica and theremin.

Husband-and-wife team Win Butler and Regine Chassagne lead the band Arcade Fire, an art-rock outfit that hails from Montreal.

The seven-member band, which deploys everything from piano, sax and violin to dobro, harpsichord and hurdy-gurdy, has two albums to its credit: Neon Bible and 2004's Funeral.

Critic David Bianculli is a big Beatles fan, and to pay homage to the 40th anniversary of the release of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, he turns to other homages: On today's Fresh Air, Bianculli reaches into his record collection and pulls out favorite cover versions of the songs from the album.

Anchors & Anvils is the jazzy, torchy, after-a-breakup second album by singer, actress and stand-up bassist Amy LaVere. Jim Dickinson, who's worked with Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones and the Replacements, produced the disc.

Music critic Milo Miles reviews Mi Sueño, the posthumous album from Cuban singer Ibrahim Ferrer, who made a name for himself in his later years as a member of the Buena Vista Social Club. Ferrer died in 2005, at age 78.

Alt-country musician Robbie Fulks doesn't get much airplay on country radio, and he often takes an adversarial stance against the Nashville establishment. So a big part of his reputation is based on his more humorous songs — and his raucous live shows.

Fulks has just released his first live album, a two-disc set called Revenge; critic Ken Tucker has a review.

Bobby Braddock is the award-winning country songwriter behind tunes including "He Stopped Loving Her today," "D-I-V-O-R-C-E," and "Did You Ever."

Now he's tackled a different kind of writing: His memoir, Down in Orburndale: A Songwriter's Youth in Old Florida, is out now from Louisiana State University Press.

The new album 3 showcases Lafayette Gilchrist's maximalist jazz piano in a trio setting rather than with his seven-piece New Volcanoes band. Even in the more intimate arrangement, Gilchrist isn't afraid to make the box shout; this is jazz from artists influenced by everything from hip-hop to the D.C. area's distinctive go-go sound.

Since she began her recording career in the '70s, Patti Smith has never been shy about recording covers of her favorite songs, such as Van Morrison's "Gloria." Now she's released an album consisting entirely of other people's songs — a dozen covers, originally recorded by acts as diverse as the Doors, Nirvana and the Rolling Stones, under the simple title Twelve.

About 10 years ago, a new variation on hip-hop became popular in San Francisco's Bay Area. It's called "hyphy" (pronounced "hi-fee"), slang for hyper-active, and it's gaining in national popularity. Hyphy Hitz, a new anthology of tracks from Bay Area acts, suggests that's partly because hyphy presents a more playful, energetic attitude than most contemporary hip-hop.

Koko Taylor long ago earned her title of "Queen of the Blues." In the mid-sixties, she came to Chicago from a sharecropper farm in Tennessee. There, she was discovered by the celebrated songwriter and performer Willie Dixon, who provided her with her crossover hit, "Wang Dang Doodle".

In 1975, after her record company went out of business, she signed with Alligator Records — and critic Milo Miles says Old School, her new album on that label, embodies Alligator's straightforward, hard-rocking blues style.