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Saxophonist Boney James talks about his new jazz CD Pure.

Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead reviews The Great Divide, the new CD by saxophonist Von Freeman.

Edwin "Lil' Eddie" Serrano has written songs for artists such as P Diddy, Usher and Janet Jackson. The New York native says shaping his own singing career has been difficult, but now he has a new CD: Nobody's Fool. He speaks with NPR's Teshima Walker.

Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead reviews the new release by tenor sax player Johnny Griffin and pianist Horace Parlan, Close Your Eyes.

Music critic Michelle Mercer reflects on the music from "A Charlie Brown Christmas" by the Vince Guaraldi Trio. For Mercer, the jazz tunes are sound of the holidays, and they reflect some of the season's less-cheerful sentiments.

Award-winning gospel singer Karen Clark Sheard talks to NPR's Tavis Smiley about her new CD, The Heavens Are Telling, which includes both traditional and hip-hop gospel music selections. Other popular gospel artists featured on the CD include Mary Mary, hip-hop producer and performer Missy Elliot and Sheard's 16-year-old daughter, Kierra.

Weekend Edition Sunday music director Ned Wharton presents his annual holiday gift guide, with the latest edition of "Director's Cuts." Suggestions include the Blind Boys of Alabama (left), whose new CD, Go Tell It On the Mountain, features vocals by Tom Wait, Chrissie Hynde and others.

Two years before his death from cancer in 1991, tenor saxophonist Stan Getz entered the studio with producer Herb Alpert. The tapes were shelved at the time in favor of a more ambitious project; they were only recently found. Alpert speaks to NPR's Liane Hansen about his friendship with Getz and the '89 session, now on the CD Bossas and Ballads.

Nat King Cole garnered more chart success for Capitol Records than any other artist in the label's history — more than 115 hit songs, in at least four different music genres. NPR's Tavis Smiley talks with friends and family about his musical legacy. Hear samples from the CD collection.

Billy Bang's story is not unusual for an urban teen of the 1960s. He was drafted after high school and sent to Vietnam. But the jazz violinist has turned his war experience into one of the most remarkable albums of 2003, says Howard Mandel in a report for Weekend Edition Saturday.