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Renee Montagne talks with bluesman R.L. Burnside about his new album Wish I Were in Heaven Sitting Down. She also speaks with Matthew Johnson, head of Fat Possum Records.

In 2000, saxophonist Joe Lovano was voted Down Beat Readers and Critics Poll Winner Tenor Player of the Year. Early in his career, Lovano played with Woody Herman and the Mel Lewis Orchestra. He's also worked with Elvin Jones, Carla Bley, Lee Konitz and Charlie Haden. And he played with the Paul Motian Trio which featured his Berklee School of music classmate, Bill Frisell. In 1991 he began work as a leader, and has recorded a number of albums. His latest is Flights of Fancy: Trio Fascination, Edition Two.

Liane speaks with Weekend Edition Sunday music director Ned Wharton about the latest crop of new releases on CD.

Jazz composer and arranger Bob Belden has written a musical suite based on the 1947 "Black Dahlia" case, involving the murder of a young actress. His influences include novelist James Ellroy and composers Alban Berg and Jerry Goldsmith. Belden is also known for producing Grammy-winning reissues of classic albums by Miles Davis.

Blues musician John Hammond has spent his entire career covering the works of great American songwriters like Chuck Berry, Willie Dixon and Mose Allison. For his latest project, Wicked Grin, Hammond selected twelve songs by Tom Waits. In an unconventional twist, he asked Waits himself to produce the record. Liane speaks with John Hammond about his friendship with Tom Waits and the recording sessions that yielded this CD.

Few people mean more to Temple University’s music program than Terell Stafford, director of jazz studies and chair of instrumental studies. And few people meant more to Stafford than Jimmy Heath, the saxophone-playing middle brother in what could very reasonably be called Philadelphia jazz’s first family.

The lauded guitarist's career spanned nearly six decades, beginning with an auspicious education in Pennsylvania from a teacher of John Coltrane.

The Latvian composer's epic battle of light and dark is a symphonic message about the relationship between humans and nature.

We remember some of the luminaries we lost this year: Chick Corea; Milford Graves; Dr. Lonnie Smith; Pat Martino; Dottie Dodgion; Howard Johnson; Slide Hampton; Curtis Fuller; and Ralph Peterson Jr.

NPR's Scott Simon speaks with Anthony Tommasini, chief classical music critic for The New York Times, about his storied career and pending retirement.