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Jerry Lee Lewis was the first interview I ever did, back in college radio, 1969. I’ve talked to him a couple of times in the nearly fifty years since. It’s always memorable. In 1999, American Routes went to his Nesbitt, MS ranch near Memphis for the Killer’s 64th birthday celebration. The next afternoon, a just-awakened Jerry Lee kindly came to the back kitchen screen door in his robe and glasses, barefoot with Chihuahuas nipping at his heel.

Dr. Michael White is the beloved New Orleans clarinetist leading the Original Liberty Jazz Band. He's also a composer, musicologist, jazz historian, and professor at Xavier University. He's a leading authority and culture bearer of traditional jazz. He's performed globally, is heard on over 50 recordings, received the NEA National Heritage Fellowship. Although Michael has ancestors in traditional jazz, he started in classical music. He later joined the famed St. Augustine High School Marching 100, but it wasn't until his late teens that Michael first heard New Orleans jazz played live at the Jazz and Heritage Festival. He went on to play with Ernest “Doc” Paulin’s brass band, 1975, at a church parade, and in social club parades and jazz funerals. Then, with Danny Barker's Fairview Baptist Church marching band. He later worked with the Young Tuxedo Brass to Wynton Marsalis's band, among many. We'll hear some of that music and more from Dr. Michael White and the Original Liberty Jazz Band.

The Black Masking Indians of New Orleans Carnival—some say Mardi Gras Indians—are neighborhood groups with roots in the late 19th century that include a Chief, a Queen, and roles like Flag Boy, Spy Boy, and Wildman. The Indians are on foot dressed in large, complex, beaded suits depicting Black and Native American histories as warriors with a crown of feathers. They sing, backed by a handmade rhythm section. I walked with Big Chief Tyrone Casby, an educator in everyday life, among his tribe, the Mohawk Hunters, their families and friends in Algiers, on the West Bank of New Orleans.

There have been several ribbon-cutting ceremonies lately on Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard, and more are on the way. The community-based revitalization…

This weekend New Orleans voters decide whether to extend and redirect a property tax to fund school maintenance. The measure seems simple: set aside money…

Okay Louisiana: what’s the Cajun band that’s also psychedelic rock, or maybe even a little punk? Hint: they’re from Lafayette, they were started by two…

Byrds and Flying Burrito Brothers co-founder Chris Hillman is a musician, singer, songwriter, and author. A third-generation Californian, Hillman grew up hearing Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Peggy Lee, Frank Sinatra, all on his parents’ hi-fi. He discovered bluegrass and picked up mandolin by way of Bill Monroe and the New Lost City Ramblers. At seventeen Hillman joined his first band, the Scottsville Squirrel Barkers, a bluegrass group that included Eagles’ guitarist Bernie Leadon. He later played with the Golden State Boys, the resident bluegrass band for Los Angeles television’s Cal’s Corral, which became the Hillmen. I spoke to Chris Hillman over Zoom, where he told me how he was recruited to play bass for the Byrds at a studio rehearsal in L.A.

The late Yusef Lateef, saxophonist, flutist and composer, was raised in the musical environment of 1930s Detroit, its clubs and ballrooms. We spoke to him about his Detroit memories, including as an auto assembly line worker. You can hear that on our website, but we wanted to delve here into Yusef Lateef’s life as a musical modernist, known for his compositions that include the blues, flutes, oboes, classical forms and non-western timbres. Yusef Lateef played with some of the greatest musicians of the 20th century including his friend, saxophonist, Sonny Stitt.

We're celebrating the music and musicians of Arhoolie Records, the Berkeley-based record company devoted to roots music, blues and jazz, Mexican and Cajun, gospel and country. Arhoolie was founded in 1960 by late producer Chris Strachwitz, who passed away in May. “Arhoolie” is a word for an African American field holler in the South. Young Chris Strachwitz arrived in America from Germany after the war. The first thing he loved was jump jazz on the radio and on jukeboxes. In school, Chris discovered hillbilly and mariachi music on border radio. He skipped class to hear Kid Ory, George Lewis, Big Jay McNeely and Muddy Waters. That's a good education for his future life as a record producer. I visited Chris in back of his record store in El Cerrito, California and asked how Arhoolie Records began.

Soul Queen Gladys Knight grew up in Atlanta with R & B, gospel, doo-wop and soul. At 79, she’s on her farewell tour. We caught up with Gladys Knight in the lobby of the Saenger Theater in New Orleans in 2000. Our conversation started out down home, where the music begins for her.