WCRS Podcast - Night Tunes

Guitarists figure prominently in this week's first hour: Al DiMeola, Alex De Grassi, and Jeff Linsky bring you three very distinct approaches to playing the instrument. And a pair of pianists, Keith Jarrett and Mikhail Pletnev, cover the Great American Songbook and the Italian baroque.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart packed much living and composing into his 35 years of life. He wrote his first keyboard music when he was just 6 years old, and began his remarkable string of 27 piano concertos as a young teenager. Tonight's first hour features a charming early Mozart concerto played by the acclaimed Murray Perahia. Other music includes two of jazz's most distinguished tenor saxophonists, Stanley Turrentine and John Coltrane.

It's a pretty incredible story: two young Mexican guitarists who started out playing thrash metal in their homeland left to settle in Ireland, and there made a name for themselves playing a distinctive brand of fast, highly rhythmic acoustic music inspired by classic rock and jazz fusion. Rodrigo & Gabriela light up the first hour of this week's program, as does another incredible virtuoso with a worldwide following, cellist Yo-Yo Ma. There's also a touch of Celtic music, a famous cinematic love theme, and two late 60's hits by a onetime protegee of Paul McCartney.

This week's first hour brings together European, American, and Canadian jazz and new age performances. Some very special music comes from the British Isles: two sides by the Beatles, including one of their greatest chart-toppers; and two very lyrical classical works played by the eminent clarinetist Emma Johnson.