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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.

Blues singer and guitarist B.B. King celebrated his 80th birthday on Sept. 16, 2005, and also released the new album 80, featuring blues duets with musicians including Elton John and Eric Clapton. This interview originally aired on Oct. 22, 1996.

Renee Montagne talks to Louisiana bluesman Tab Benoit about his new CD, Voice of the Wetlands. Benoit and an all-star group of Louisiana musicians recorded the album in January to call attention to the state's vanishing wetlands.

It's funny how the best track on Do the Boomerang, Don Byron's tribute to legendary R&B saxophonist Junior Walker, gives James Brown's "There It Is" a makeover. Byron, arguably his generation's premier jazz clarinetist, covers James Brown on one of the year's zestiest jazz discs.

A collection of miniatures brought to life via multi-tracking, Spirits finds Jarrett using a total of 18 instruments to bring simple, sometimes folk-song-like melodies to life. He plays everything himself, including hand drums and soprano saxophone.