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He grew up with John Coltrane, gigged with Art Blakey and shared the silver screen with Tom Hanks. Now, on the eve of 80, illustrious saxophonist and jazz composer Benny Golson is re-creating his greatest ensemble: the six-person Jazztet.

M. Ward's seventh album Hold Time was released Feb. 17. The singer-songwriter is known for his largely acoustic and usually spare arrangements. Ken Tucker has a review.

The songwriter behind Eric Clapton's "After Midnight" and "Cocaine" says he once thought of himself as a late bloomer at 30. Forty years later, he's still blooming. Cale tells Melissa Block about his new album, Roll On.

Rudresh Mahanthappa's Kinsmen blends South Asian music with American jazz. The jazz saxophonist says his inspiration to explore Indian music on the saxophone came from a CD his brother gave him as a joke called Saxophone Indian Style.

Conductor, arranger and musical historian John McGlinn frequently stripped classic musicals to their roots by returning to original orchestrations and reinstating lost songs. McGlinn died on Feb. 14; Fresh Air remembers him with interviews from 1989 and 1992.

Case has one of those huge, powerful voices that pulls you in and swirls you around, kind of like a tornado. For her latest album, Middle Cyclone, Case filled a barn with pianos, recorded the sounds of tree frogs and channeled a lovestruck tornado. Here, Case discusses the process of writing Middle Cyclone and working with her other band, The New Pornographers.

A new recording of Allegro, a 1947 musical by Rodgers & Hammerstein, has just been released on CD. Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization President Ted Chapin joins Fresh Air to discuss the musical.

Singer-songwriter Tom Russell lives in El Paso-Juarez, which sits right on the border between Texas and Mexico. When he heard about the new wall going up between the two countries, he realized that all cheap labor on the border is done by illegal immigrants. So he wrote a song that asks an obvious question.

The Gaslight Anthem's new album, The '59 Sound, is filled with narratives that recall and refer directly to Bruce Springsteen's early works. Music reviewer Tom Moon says that it's one of the year's great surprises.

Joan Baez's sterling voice, the songs she sings and her commitment to society's underdogs have had a profound influence on American culture. Baez talks about her new record, Day After Tomorrow, and performs songs from the album at NPR's New York studio.