Search results for

Glenn Miller's "In the Mood," Edward R. Murrow's wartime broadcasts from London and Public Enemy's influential hip-hop album Fear of a Black Planet are among the recordings added to the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry.

Sheilah Kast speaks with comedian and Broadway diva Lea DeLaria about her new CD of jazz standards, Double Standards, from Telarc Records.

Dizzy Gillespie once said that he heard Roy Eldridge playing trumpet and uttered, "That's the job I want." Later, the two musicians were bitter rivals, but eventually agreed to produce a record. The result was 1954's Roy and Diz, a classic repertoire of dueling trumpets.

Erroll Garner became a jazz star even though he never learned to read music. He taught himself to play the piano and landed a gig on the radio at age 10. As an adult, Garner recorded the live album, Concert by the Sea, on one melodic night in a church in Carmel, California.

Psychedelic rocker Roky Erickson has influenced groups ranging from REM to the Grateful Dead. A new anthology features the best of his work over 40 years. David Greenberger has a review of I Have Always Been Here Before.

Gene "Jug" Ammons played bebop and R&B with equal skill. As the founder of the "Chicago School" of tenor sax, he performed with the Woody Herman and Billy Eckstine orchestras. He and his saxophonist friend, Sonny Stitt, often seemed to be in competition when they played together, as they do in this album.

Tony Bennett got his break when Bob Hope saw him performing with Pearl Bailey and put him in his stage show. This native of Queens had mega-hits in the 1950s and '60s as a crooner. Teamed with famed jazz pianist Bill Evans in this album, Bennett shows off his inventive, interpretive voice.

Louis Armstrong, one of the greatest entertainers of the 20th Century, exuded joy and exuberance as a trumpet player and singer. He rose from poverty in New Orleans, before achieving worldwide fame. In this 1928 album, a young Satchmo shows the extraordinary inventiveness that put him on the map.

Sheilah Kast talks with The Big Phat Band's leader, Gordon Goodwin, about his revival of big-band music for a new era. Goodwin pulls in some of L.A.'s best studio sidemen to perform his intricate and swinging arrangements. The group is not only popular in jazz venues; it also has a following in high schools and colleges, where they often perform. Their CD XXL will be released next month in a dual CD/DVD format on Silverline records.

"Django" was The Modern Jazz Quartet's biggest hit. The album of the same name exemplifies the band's divergent style, incorporating elements of bop, classical music, and the cool jazz movement. Listen for John Lewis' use of baroque fugues in the album's eclectic tracks.