Milo Miles

The cross-cultural crew that is the New York band Balkan Beat Box came together around two Israeli musicians, Tamir Muskat and Ori Kaplan.

Their latest album is called Nu Med; world music critic Milo Miles has a review

Music critic Milo Miles reviews Mi Sueño, the posthumous album from Cuban singer Ibrahim Ferrer, who made a name for himself in his later years as a member of the Buena Vista Social Club. Ferrer died in 2005, at age 78.

Koko Taylor long ago earned her title of "Queen of the Blues." In the mid-sixties, she came to Chicago from a sharecropper farm in Tennessee. There, she was discovered by the celebrated songwriter and performer Willie Dixon, who provided her with her crossover hit, "Wang Dang Doodle".

In 1975, after her record company went out of business, she signed with Alligator Records — and critic Milo Miles says Old School, her new album on that label, embodies Alligator's straightforward, hard-rocking blues style.

For many veteran AfroPop performers, the end of the LP era meant their back catalogs were suddenly unavailable. And for many of those musicians, there's no prospect of a CD being produced locally. So it's good news, according to music critic Milo Miles, that the music of one performer who made a splash in the West — Nigerian juju superstar King Sunny Ade — is being smartly preserved in the digital age. Miles reviews three new collections: Gems From the Classic Years and The Best of the Classic Years, both on the Shanachie label, and King of Juju, from Wrasse.

Four women musicians from Bellingham, Wash., who call themselves "The Trucks" have released a debut album of the same name, with language and attitude that is not going to get them much airplay on mainstream radio.

The Trucks are another entry in a long line of female rock bands that know and find their audience.

Jerry Lee Lewis is one of the founders of rock 'n' roll. He has kept a low profile since his last album was released in 1996. His new studio album, Last Man Standing, was recorded over the last five years with an impressive cast. Collaborators included Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, B.B. King, Willie Nelson and Bruce Springsteen, among others.

Music critic Milo Miles tells us how the klezmer-fusion band the Klezmatics are keeping the music of Woody Guthrie alive. Their latest albums are Woody Guthrie's Happy Joyous Hanukkah and the Grammy-nominated Wonder Wheel. They are currently on tour.

Milo Miles talks about the music of Brazilian singer, songwriter, and bandleader Marisa Monte. Monte produces her own records, organizes bands and shapes every aspect of her career. She released a pair of albums earlier this year, Universo ao Meu Redor, and Infinito Particular.

Music critic Milo Miles reviews the new album St. Elsewhere by Gnarls Barkley, a persona of two Americans: producer and DJ Brian "Danger Mouse" Burton and rapper and songwriter Thomas "Cee-Lo" Calloway.

Several recent DVDs take up the history of punk music. Don Letts' Punk Attitude focuses on the ethos of teen rebellion, while All Dolled Up tells the story of the influential New York Dolls.