Music

Fitzgerald, who died in 1996, had her first hits with Chick Webb's big band before going out on her own in the 1940s. Critic Kevin Whitehead says Fitzgerald at her best is as good as it gets.

The country singer teams up with producer Lenny Kaye on her new record of spiritual songs. Critic Ken Tucker says the result is one of the most distinctive recordings he's heard in a while.

The New-Orleans-born trumpeter salutes the earliest jazz recordings on his new album. Critic Kevin Whitehead says Ruler Rebel showcases Adjuah's "commanding personal voice and ... sense of direction."

Growing up, punk rocker Laura Jane Grace always felt conflicted about gender. She tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross that she felt like two "twin souls" were warring inside of her, fighting for control. "I thought that I was quite possibly schizophrenic," she says.

Though the Tennessee-born musician lives in Brooklyn now, she still takes inspiration from the Gospel music she grew up with. Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews June's latest album.

Shirey mixes dry vocals with multi-instrumentalist stylings on his new album. Critic Milo Miles says A Bottle of Whiskey and a Handful of Bees is an original and engaging work.

Monk Dreams, Hallucinations and Nightmares, by the Finish-born pianist and composer, is a meditation on Thelonious Monk's "odd but catchy melodies," says jazz critic Kevin Whitehead.

Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead remembers Mengelberg, who died Friday, as a "musical anarchist" who taught classical counterpoint and wrote dozens of catchy melodies.

Critic Ken Tucker reviews the British group The xx's third album. "Beneath its sleek beauty, there's a fresh joyousness ... that at its best is something close to inspirational," he says of I See You.

The Puerto Rican jazz musician leads his long-running quartet on his new album. Critic Kevin Whitead says Típico is full of "feverishly intricate music that ... comes from the heart."

The legendary alto sax player began playing saxophone at the age of 15 in native New York City. Schooled in bebop at the start of his career, McLean names Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young and Charlie Parker as influences. He's played with jazz greats pianist Bud Powell, Miles Davis and Charles Mingus. He continues to play and record today. He also teaches music at the University of Hartford.

She has a new solo recording out this month, At Last. Knight began her singing career at age 4. Since that modest start, she went on to lead one of the most successful vocal soul groups in America, Gladys Knight and The Pips. The group stayed together for 39 years before disbanding.Among, the group's most notable songs include: I Heard It Through The Grapevine, Neither One of Us, and Midnight Train to Georgia. Knight then launched a solo career. Terry interviewed Knight before a live audience in San Francisco in 1996.

Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead reviews new ten-part documentary series on the history of jazz by Ken Burns. It premieres on PBS, January 8th.

Michael Cuscuna and Charlie Lourie are co-founders of Mosaic Records, a label committed to reissuing classic jazz recordings, many of them originally recorded by Blue Note. The two have also collaborated on the new book, "The Blue Note Years: The Jazz Photography of Francis Wolff," (Rizzoli International Publications). It includes 200 photographs taken by Francis Wolff from 1941-1965, who also co-founded the Blue Note label. Many of Wolff's photographs were used as Blue Note album covers.

In the 1960s she was a member of the girl group, The Ronettes. They were already making records with a different label when producer Phil Spector signed them and turned them into hit makers. Their songs include Be My Baby, Baby, I Love You, and Walking in the Rain. Ronnie married Phil Spector, but the marriage ended in divorce.

Acoustic guitar and the occasional faint cry of a pedal steel guitar frame Merritt's vocals on her new album. Rock Critic Ken Tucker has a review.

'Jumpin' At The Woodside' Catches Count Basie And His Band Honing Their Art

Jay Bakker is the son of televangelists Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker. In 1989 his father, Jimmy, was convicted of defrauding his followers at the Praise The Lord ministry, and sent to prison. Then his parents divorced. Bakker was 13 years old at the time. In his new memoir, Son of a Preacher Man: My Search for Grace in the Shadows, (Harper), he writes of returning to faith after a long period of alcoholism and disillusionment. Jay Bakker now heads his own ministry, Revolution, in Atlanta, ministering to skateboarders, punk rockers, and hippies, and other neglected kids.

Rock historian missed the "Prefab Four" the first time they came along. Listening now, he finds that the Monkees' best songs have held up, mostly because they used top-notch songwriting talent.

Trombonist Ray Anderson, bassist Mark Helias and drummer Gerry Hemingway first played together as a trio in 1977. Critic Kevin Whitehead says their new double album proves they can still deliver.