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The great blues pianist and songwriter, now 82, swore off recording for more than a decade. And then Joe Henry approached him to make a new album, and didn't relent for a year. Here, the artist and producer talk about their collaborations on The Way of the World.

The singer and pianist began his musical study as a percussionist, but shifted to the piano after Ellis Marsalis overheard him tinkering at the keys. Today, the Loston Harris Trio is a mainstay of the Bemelmans Bar at Manhattan's Carlyle Hotel. On this episode of Piano Jazz, Harris and guest host Michael Feinstein sit down to discuss the cabaret tradition — and, of course, play a few tunes.

Bach's cantatas contain some of his greatest music, but their individual sections are seldom performed out of context, least of all by celebrities. Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz says Hilary Hahn's new CD, Bach: Violin & Voice, provides a welcome exception to this rule.

In June, the Songwriters Hall of Fame will induct the man who wrote the theme for M*A*S*H. At 84, composer and arranger Johnny Mandel has an Oscar and multiple Grammys, as well as credit for arranging Barbra Streisand's latest album.

At Newport's Harbor Stage, Hiromi's stride-style left hand pumps rhythm to support the fabulous speed and articulation of her right. And on the Main Stage, the Michel Camilo Trio plays his signature arrangement of "Poinciana" and ends his set with a lively "A Night in Tunisia."

Trumpeter, flugelhorn player and vocalist Stacy Rowles was a fixture on the L.A. jazz scene, and played regularly in all-female jazz groups the Jazzbirds and Maiden Voyage. This program from 2001 is presented as a tribute to Rowles, who died in 2009.

"Fair Weather Friend," featured on the band's rootsy new album Feed My Soul, revolves around a grim sequence of events: "The doctor he said cancer, I stopped in my tracks / I did not have the answer, but I knew you'd have my back." Only the supposed friend deserted Holmes in his time of need.

Though they work as a traditional African-American string band, Carolina Chocolate Drops' members throw in some modern twists. The Durham, N.C.-based trio plays a wide variety of instruments, including the banjo, fiddle, jug, bones and harmonica. All of those sounds are featured on the band's newest record, Genuine Negro Jig.

Bonerama's version of "When the Levee Breaks" pulls from the famous version on Led Zeppelin IV, complete with sly re-renderings of harmonica solos on swaying trombone. It moves with a heavy groove, dominated by the pounding wave of sound created by the slides of the trombone.

Author Nadine Cohodas has written a new biography of singer Nina Simone. It's called Princess Noire: The Tumultuous Reign of Nina Simone, and it tells the story of the singer's evolution from classical pianist to civil rights icon. Read about Simone's musical beginnings in an excerpt from the book here.