Search results for

Jimmy Thackery is a musical hitchhiker: He jumps on Chuck Berry's "Promised Land" and takes off without a second look. The bluesman uses his stinging, ringing guitar to set the pace for a cross-country journey that begins on a bus in Southwest Virginia.

Tod Machover's goal is to put music into the hands of people who want to play it — or at least imagine it. He and his team at MIT helped to create Guitar Hero, and one of his latest projects helps people with disabilities write and perform music.

Earl Scruggs' name is almost synonymous with the banjo. And for a good reason, too — he helped pioneer Bluegrass music with his three-finger banjo picking technique, now known as "Scruggs Style."

Alumni of Gillespie's many different bands still get together to ensure that his dazzling songwriting gets heard with the power and verve it demands. The Dizzy Gillespie All-Stars (the big-band edition) played a special celebration with the vocal quartet New York Voices, live from the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., to ring in 2009.

Hiromi's Sonicbloom brought a high-energy kickoff to 2009's Toast of the Nation broadcast, as she performed a set from where all four members met: the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Mass. The quartet performs with High-Romantic lyricism, jazz-fusion electronics and arena-rock bombast.

The Hot Club of Detroit is a jazz quintet that takes its inspiration from the legendary Gypsy-jazz juggernaut the Quintette du Hot Club de France. Guitarist Evan Perry follows in the footsteps of Hot Club originator Django Reinhardt, and he leads his Motor City incarnation of the group in two Reinhardt classics, "Coquette" and "Nuages."

The last year and a half hasn't been easy for the award-winning jazz pianist and composer, who spent months in a coma and almost died. But he has a new album out and is performing again.

Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead reviews a new album from the prolific composer and pianist Fred Hersch. It's called Fred Hersch Pocket Orchestra, Live at the Jazz Standard.

Mike Disfarmer was a small-town Arkansas eccentric who disowned his family and its lifestyle. He was also an incredible portrait photographer. Now, jazz guitarist Bill Frisell has assembled a 21st-century string band to record an album inspired by Disfarmer's work.

Throughout Hicks' 40-year career, his eclectic persona, wily wit and quirky combination of cowboy-folk and country-swing music have endeared him to many, including legends such as as Elvis Costello and Willie Nelson. Now, after an eight-year absence, Hicks has released a new album, Tangled Tales.