Critic Kevin Whitehead reviews a new, seven-disc Charles Mingus box set chronicling the jazz legend's mid-'60s live performances. The records, Whitehead says, "can be a little raw, as if the explosive music caught the engineers by surprise."
"Good music is good music," violinist Angèle Dubeau says. The Canadian musician interprets theme music from Halo, Angry Birds and other video games on her latest album.
The singer died in an airplane that crashed in the early hours of Sunday morning in Toluca, Mexico. She was a household name and feminist presence in the Latin music scene.
From the versatility of the violin to the virtuosity of a mysterious opera composer, NPR's Tom Huizenga and host Guy Raz spin an eclectic set of the year's best classical recordings.
The English singer and songwriter, formerly of the dance-pop duoEverything but the Girl, confronts the mixed blessings of the holiday season on her new album Tinsel and Lights.
The jazz master died on Wednesday at age 91. In a 1999 interview with Fresh Air's Terry Gross he talked about his decades in the music industry and his first love: rodeo roping.
We remember Dave Brubeck, who died Wednesday at age 91, with a March 2012 review from jazz critic Kevin Whitehead, who wrote about a few of the more obscure titles from Dave Brubeck's quartet.