Music

Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead pays tribute to Fats Waller on the centennial of his birth, and reviews Fats Waller: The Centennial Collection, a CD and DVD.

Guitarist and singer Marty Grosz and cornet player Randy Reinhart join us for a special in-studio performance in honor of the 100th birthday of Thomas "Fats" Waller. He would have been 100 on May 21. Grosz and Reinhart will perform songs composed by the great pianist and vocalist. Waller wrote many hit songs, appeared in films in the 1930s and 1940s, and wrote Broadway musicals.

Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead reviews Give (Columbia) the latest by the trio The Bad Plus.

Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews Musicology, (Columbia) the new recording by Prince.

Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews the debut album by the Eagles of Death Metal called Peace Love Death Metal. The group's drummer is Josh Homme, the singer-guitarist of the hard-rock band Queens of the Stone Age.

Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews Get Away From Me, the debut album by singer-songwriter Nellie McKay.

Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead reviews a new box set of Dave Brubeck's Time Out albums.

Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews the new solo album by Graham Parker, Your Country.

He calls his latest project a "musical novel." It's a new CD, Greendale, a 10-song cycle with his band Crazy Horse, set in a fictional California seaside town. He also shot a feature film version on Super8, which made the film festival circuit and will be in wider distribution in April.

She is the principal conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in Britain. She was the first woman ever to be named principal conductor of a major British orchestra. Since 1993, Alsop has also been music director of the Colorado Symphony, where her programming won several national awards. She has had guest appearances with many orchestras including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony and the symphony orchestras of Toronto, Atlanta, Houston, Cincinnati and Indianapolis. She was a protigi of Leonard Bernstein.

Harrison is the widow of George Harrison, the former Beatle. The two were married for 24 years. Harrison died in December 2001. Before his death, he began working on his Dark Horse catalogue (1976-1992), his entire body of work, plus unreleased demos. The box set (on Capitol Records) includes six albums as well as a DVD of seven restored music videos. Just this week Harrison was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Note: Audio for this feature is not available due to Internet rights issues.

Rock historian Ed Ward remembers Dimension Records, which showcased the demos of such songwriters as Gerry Goffin and Carole King.

Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz reviews some silent musical scores by the Alloy Orchestra. They write and perform new music for silent films. Schwartz looks at their scores for the Buster Keaton films, The General and Steamboat Bill, Jr. (on DVD, Image Entertainment).

Critic Milo Miles reviews Punk Rock (Quarterstick label) the new record by the Mekons, recorded during their 2002 tour.

Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead reviews The Complete Verve Roy Eldridge Sessions on the mail-order Mosaic label. The box set includes seven CDs.

Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead reviews Jones' second album, Feels Like Home, on the jazz label Blue Note.

Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews the new CD by newcomer Dan Reeder.

Rubin worked with Johnny Cash for the last 10 years of Cash's life, collaborating on four critically acclaimed and Grammy award-winning albums (American Recordings, Unchained, American III: Solitary Man and American IV: The Man Comes Around.) At the time of Cash's death, they were collaborating on a box set that collects many unreleased tracks from those previous sessions, as well as a best-of CD. The five-CD collection is called Unearthed.

Sheffer is the founder, conductor and artistic director of the New-York based orchestra. The group is known for the diversity of its musical program and rediscovering neglected works. They've performed works by Wagner, George Gershwin, Franz Schubert, Philip Glass and Paul Bowles. In March, the orchestra will perform the U.S. premiere of the Jonathan Dove adaptation of Wagner's The Valkyrie.

His songs include "By The Time I Get to Phoenix," "Up Up and Away," "Wichita Lineman," "Macarthur Park," "Galveston," "Didn't We," "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" and "All I Know." His songs have been recorded by Glenn Campbell, Johnny Cash, Joe Cocker, Linda Ronstadt, Art Garfunkle and the Fifth Dimension. At one point in the 1960s, he had five Top 10 hits within a 20-month period.