Aug 21st, 2008 · In the late 1990s, JazzSet made two visits to the Mt. Hood Jazz Festival in Gresham, Ore. Music started before noon, and as the sun burned the haze away, the snow-capped peak shimmered on the skyline, helping to inspire memorable performances by the Billy Childs Trio and the John Blake Quintet.
Nov 13th, 2007 · George Blake, one of Russia's most revered spies was honored on his 85th birthday. Blake worked for Britain's spy agency during the Cold War. In time, he tipped off the Soviets to efforts by their enemies to decode military communications in East Berlin.
Dec 6th, 2006 · New Orleans has a new man in charge of recovery efforts. Mayor Ray Nagin has picked Dr. Edward Blakely, a professor of urban affairs who taught at U.C. Berkeley and is now at the University of Sydney in Australia. In California Dr. Blakely worked on reconstruction projects in the San Francisco Bay Area after the Earthquake of 1989 and the Oakland wildfires of 1991. Robert Siegel talks with Blakely.
Feb 19th, 2006 · Some pure Americana comes from the pen of recent four-time Grammy winner William Bolcom. His "Ragomania" honors jazz great Eubie Blake and Bolcom's idol George Gershwin. This performance of "Ragomania" comes from the Aspen Music Festival, with Marin Alsop conducting the Aspen Festival Orchestra.
Oct 19th, 2004 · In the 1950s, composer William Bolcom began an ambitious project to set the 46 poems in William Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience to music. A massive work, the result premiered in 1984. Now, a recording of Bolcom's work has finally been released. NPR's Jeffrey Freymann-Weyr reports.