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Barbershop
11:54 am
Fri February 1, 2013

Is Pre-Super Bowl Drama Fair Game?

It's Super Bowl time and the Barbershop guys are serving up some dish with those wings. Host Michel Martin and the guys discuss how one 49ers player is in hot water for anti-gay comments. They also talk about why some people still hate the Ravens' Ray Lewis, more than a decade after he was cleared of murder charges.

JazzSet with Dee Dee Bridgewater
2:08 pm
Thu January 31, 2013

Lionel Loueke Trio On JazzSet

Credit Brantley Gutierrez / Courtesy of the artist
Lionel Loueke.

The New York Times writer Jon Pareles called Lionel Loueke "the gentle virtuoso" for the engaging way Loueke melds African guitar traditions with jazz harmony. Loueke gets African-style rhythms going, tapping on his guitar and using his effects pedals. He sings and harmonizes with his own voice.

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Music Reviews
1:13 pm
Thu January 31, 2013

A 'Special Edition' Box Set Of Jack DeJohnette And Band

Credit Chris Griffith / Courtesy of the artist
Jack DeJohnette.

On a new box set collecting the first four albums of Jack DeJohnette and his band Special Edition, two discs are gems and the other two have their moments. DeJohnette's quartet-slash-quintet was fronted by smoking saxophonists on the way up, set loose on catchy riffs and melodies. The springy rhythm section could tweak the tempos like no one this side of '60s goddess Laura Nyro.

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Television
12:04 pm
Thu January 31, 2013

Gabourey Sidibe, From 'Precious' To 'AfroPop'

Gabourey Sidibe burst onto the Hollywood scene in 2009 with her Oscar-nominated performance in Precious. Now she's hosting the new season of AfroPop, a documentary film series on public television. Sidibe talks to host Michel Martin about the series, her career, and the secret meaning of her name.

Around the Nation
11:56 am
Thu January 31, 2013

Violence In The Windy City

Transcript

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

We turn now to an all-too-familiar story of violence here in the U.S. In Chicago, 15-year-old honor student Hadiya Pendleton was shot and killed on Tuesday. She was the 42nd person killed in Chicago since the beginning of the year. Last year, there were more than 500 killings. And a number of these murders, particularly of young people, brought the city to tears, but Pendleton's death has brought national attention because she recently performed with her high school drill team at the president's inauguration in Washington, D.C.

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Africa
11:56 am
Thu January 31, 2013

Is Egypt Better Or Worse Off Now?

It's been two years since Hosni Mubarak was ousted as Egypt's President. Today, there's new leadership, but the country is still in turmoil. And some Egyptians wonder if things are changing for the best. Host Michel Martin speaks with NPR Cairo Bureau Chief, Leila Fadel, to learn more about the new Egypt.

The Checkout: Live
3:01 am
Thu January 31, 2013

Jaleel Shaw Quartet: Live At Berklee

Credit Michael Borgida / Berklee College of Music
Jaleel Shaw.

Originally published on Tue March 12, 2013 1:23 pm

Alto saxophonist Jaleel Shaw keeps good company. He tours with Roy Haynes, the living legend of jazz drums. He grew up in the Philadelphia music community, where new creative ferment in black pop music abutted multiple generations of jazz elders. He knows the music of Charles Mingus quite well from playing in the Mingus Big Band.

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Live At The Village Vanguard
2:17 am
Thu January 31, 2013

Chris Potter Quartet: Live At The Village Vanguard

Originally published on Thu February 7, 2013 1:55 pm

The history of jazz is often told as a sequence of epic heroes, legends whose careers proceed from one great accomplishment to another. Coincidentally, the saxophonist Chris Potter, bright-toned and gymnastically powerful, has been reading Homer lately. That's inspired his latest suite of compositions, a collection of tuneful numbers based on The Odyssey. The Sirens is geared largely around a quartet of widely admired musicians, not least of whom is Potter himself.

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Music News
5:51 pm
Wed January 30, 2013

Remembering Butch Morris, The Man Who Conducted Improvisation

Credit Samir Ljuma for NPR
Butch Morris leads a conduction at the 2007 Skopje Jazz Festival in Macedonia.

Originally published on Wed January 30, 2013 6:18 pm

The jazz musician Butch Morris was beloved by his fellow musicians and acclaimed by critics and fans for his ability to conduct improvisation. While that may sound like a contradiction, Morris pulled it off — with jazz musicians and symphony orchestras around the world.

A resident of New York City, he died yesterday in a Brooklyn hospital of cancer. He was 65 years old.

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Music Reviews
3:27 pm
Wed January 30, 2013

A 1969 Bootleg Unearths Miles Davis' 'Lost' Quintet

Credit Courtesy of the artist
Miles Davis' Live in Europe 1969: The Bootleg Series Vol. 2 is a compilation of previously unreleased material performed by a short-lived incarnation of his touring band.

Originally published on Wed January 30, 2013 6:18 pm

After a slew of multidisc sets devoted to key points in the career of Miles Davis, you'd think Columbia Records would have unearthed every speck of consequential music by now. But not quite.

This week, Columbia brings out Live in Europe 1969: The Bootleg Series Vol. 2 — a three-CD, one-DVD set devoted to the jazz maverick's "lost" quintet, his touring band from 1969.

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