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Bebe Winans' new CD Dream, inspired by the Rev. Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream" speech, hits music stores on Tuesday. Ed Gordon talks to his friend about pursuing a movie career and writing inspirational music.

Matthew Ward grew up in a home filled with music. The singer and songwriter, who performs under the name M. Ward, remembers hearing a wide range of tunes including Louis Armstrong's version of "Hello Dolly," the Carter Family's spirituals and the Doors. Our reviewer says Ward's new album, Transistor Radio, attempts to capture that diversity.

Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz reviews The Callas Conversations on DVD and Maria Callas: Legend, a CD and DVD.

Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz reviews two new albums of Handel arias by opera singers Renee Fleming and Lorraine Hunt Lieberson (on the Universal and Avie labels).

What do you get when you combine traditional Jewish music with infectious Afro-Cuban rhythms? The new album by Roberto Juan Rodriguez, Baila! Gitano Baila!, attempts that daring fusion. Tom Moon has a review.

Get Lifted is the first solo album by R&B singer and piano player John Legend, who made his name playing with star producer Kanye West. Rock critic Ken Tucker has a review.

NPR critic Linda Holmes explains why action sequences that don't echo into the movie theater next door should be appreciated.

In the 1920s, Sidney Bechet developed a distinctive, vibrato style on soprano saxophone that won him wide acclaim. His career lagged until 1949, when he went to a jazz festival in Paris and became an overnight sensation. His skilled improvisation is highlighted in this box set, which covers 1923 to 1950.

Bix Beiderbecke's virtuosity and originality with the cornet won admiration from Louis Armstrong and other jazz greats in the 1920s. He played with Paul Whiteman's orchestra in New York before dying tragically at age 28. This definitive compilation (reissued in 1990) has most of Beiderbecke's best work, including his piano classic "In a Mist."

John Lewis, the artistic director of the Modern Jazz Quartet, once said that Charlie Parker was the "only jazz artist whose every single solo was perfect." Confirmation: Best of the Verve Years captures "Bird" at the height of the bebop era when he was still in his twenties.