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The producer of an upcoming Nina Simone biopic has cast Afro-Latina actress Zoe Saldana in the lead role — a move that's proved controversial. Critics say that while Saldana is a talented actress, she's too close to traditional light-skinned Hollywood beauty standards.

"The Empress of the Blues" gave voice the listeners' tribulations and yearnings of the 1920s and '30s. A new 10-CD box set collects the complete works of the colossus who straddled jazz and blues.

The composer has done a brave thing for any artist in any medium: He's messed with a classic, specifically, Vivaldi's most famous four violin concertos. Richter says he had "to figure out how much Max and how much Vivaldi there was going on at every moment."

The 2012 Caramoor Jazz Festival presents everything from young artists making their marks to established stars still shining bright. We highlight singer Gretchen Parlato and hard bop band The Cookers.

Starting in the 1920s, Hawkins made an afterthought of an instrument into one of the sounds we most identify with jazz. He also straddled the era of big band swing and later developments like bebop. Here are five songs that illustrate his genius.

The quintessential crooner talks about the significance of American popular song, his favorite songwriters and his love of painting in this program from 2004.

As you prepare to feast upon cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie and your choice of entree this Thanksgiving, there's also an operatic feast to be had. Classical commentator Miles Hoffman joins NPR's Renee Montagne to take us through a five-course meal.

This fall marks the centennial anniversaries of two all-time great improvisers, born in 1912. The fat-toned saxophonist and the fleet, sparkling pianist were peers, and if they didn't record a lot together, the story of their generation comes out in their shared histories.

The young composer from Brooklyn battles stereotypes in classical music with her DIY aesthetic, her penchant for blending genres, and her new opera, Song from the Uproar, based on the early 20th-century adventurer Isabelle Eberhardt.

There's little dispute among educators that kids aren't reading as well as they should be. Now, a growing number of states are taking a hard-line approach, requiring that third-graders who can't read at grade level be automatically held back. But some worry that will do more harm than good.