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If Steely Dan's new album sounds familiar, it's because it features the distinctive style of smooth but funky jazz that Walter Becker and Donald Fagen have brought to their music for more than 30 years. NPR's Steve Inskeep interviews the duo. Hear songs from Everything Must Go.

Horace Silver pioneered the hard bop style in the 1950s, but he never forgot his roots. On Song for My Father, Silver demonstrates his imaginative and funky piano style while paying homage to the Cape Verdan melodies of his Portuguese father.

Jazz Night hangs with trumpeter Theo Croker in Jacksonville, Fla., where he spent his teenage years, to revisit old mentors and hear a set by his band from the Jacksonville Jazz Festival.

No One Knows About Persian Cats tells the story of Iranian musicians trying to put together a band in a country where heavy metal, rock and hip-hop are illegal. The film won two prizes at last year's Cannes International Film Festival, and opens in this week in the U.S.

A feast of words written for song, for print and for laughs on this episode of Cabinet of Wonders. New music, duets, and a stand against the drum machine. Then, novelist Colson Whitehead, on the trauma he survived at the hands of Coca Cola.

In 1982, the UN began observing "Peace Day" every September at the opening of its General Assembly. In 2002, it officially declared Sept. 21 as a permanent date for the International Day of Peace. In preparation, here are five beautiful jazz performances that celebrate the spirit of the occasion.

The story's a classic: An outnumbered band of Athenians pushes back the mighty Persian army. But the battle of Marathon, 2,500 years ago in ancient Greece, left a legacy that extends far beyond the name of a famous race. Historian Richard Billows explores the legendary battle in his new book, Marathon: How One Battle Changed Western Civilization.

From the late 1940s to the mid-'60s, Latin music was hugely popular in America's Jewish community. Entire albums were recorded as testaments to the phenomenon. One of them, which put Jewish classics to a Latin beat, has just been reissued. This weekend, it will be re-created in concert at Lincoln Center in New York.

A few years ago, Jon Bon Jovi stopped performing due to a vocal cord injury. The Hulu docuseries Thank You, Goodnight offers a career retrospective, plus a view of his surgery and return to the stage.

The vibraphonist has a "love-hate relationship" with his instrument that has been helpful in perfecting his craft — but it wouldn't mean much without the deep emotional well he pulls from.