Music

Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz reviews a new collection of works by French composer Charles Koechlin ("Kuhch-LAN") performed by Boston Symphony flutist Fenwick Smith. (The album's called "Music for Flute" and it's on the Hyperion label).

World music critic Milo Miles reviews Kabu (kah-boo), the recent album from Ethiopian singer Aster Aweke (ah-ster ah-week-a).

TV Critic David Bianculli tells us about the new season of "MTV Unplugged," the music video network's one-hour acoustic music series. It begins this Wednesday with an acoustic concert by Eric Clapton.

Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews the new release, "Little Village," by Little Village, a new band made up of veteran rockers, Ry Cooder, John Hiatt, Nick Lowe, and Jim Keltner. (on Reprise).

Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead reviews Don Byron's debut album, "Tuskegee Experiments." (on the Elektra Nonesuch label).

Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews "England's Dreaming," Jon Savage's new book on the English punk movement.

World music critic Milo Miles checks out the pop music of Italy. Artists include: Lucio Dalla, Mango, and Angelo Branduari.

Composer Alan Menken. With his partner, the late lyricist Howard Ashman, Menken wrote the music for the Disney movies "Beauty and the Beast" and "The Little Mermaid." The pair also collaborated on the Broadway musical "Little Shop of Horrors." (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane).

Used to be that big bands were the thing. Now, they're pretty much a thing of the past. But jazz critic Kevin Whitehead says he's found a couple of big bands from Boston where teachers and students are drawn to schools like the New England Conservatory and the Berklee College of Music. He reviews "Orange Then Blue," by Funkallero, and "After Blue," by the Ken Schaphorst Big Band.

Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead reviews the soundtrack of the new movie "Naked Lunch."

Rock critic Ken Tucker checks out Scotland's current contributions to rock. He looks at the bands Primal Scream and Teenage Fanclub.

Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz reviews the new release by conductor Craig Smith. Smith is best known as the conductor of Peter Sellars' controversial stagings of Mozart operas. His new recording is of a series of motets by German composer Heinrich Schutz (rhymes with "putz"). It's performed by the Chorus of Boston's Emanuel Church, and it's on the Koch International Label.

Satirist Harry Shearer. Shearer has an eclectic career: he does many of the voices on the TV series "The Simpsons," he has a weekly program on many public radio stations called "Le Show," he often has character roles in movies, and he's one of the members of the parody heavy metal rock group "Spinal Tap." This year, Spinal Tap's releasing a new album and going out on tour.

Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead reviews the latest album by the Mal Waldron Trio, "Our Colline's A
Treasure."

Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews Lou Reed's new album, "Magic and Loss" and Robbie Robertson's album "Storyville."

Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz reviews a reissue of an album of Mozart and Beethoven Duos and Sonatas.

Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead reviews two great solo saxophone pieces by Coleman Hawkins. The first is called "Picasso," and is based on the music of cellist Pablo Casals. The second is called "Dali."

Rock historian Ed Ward concludes his look at the last four decades of rock with a profile of 1982.

Rock historian Ed Ward goes back 20 years, to 1972.