FRESH AIR
With his band the MGs, Booker T. Jones created the classic instrumental “Green Onions.” But they were also the studio band for Stax Records, making music with soul artists such as Otis Redding, Ray Charles and Wilson Pickett. A new two-CD box set features Stax highlights and Booker T. is now back on tour.
RADIO TIMES
AYAAN HIRSI-ALI is an outspoken critic of Islam and defender of women?s rights. Her life story is detailed in her new memoir Infidel. In 2004, with director Theo van Gogh, she made Submission, a film about the oppression of women in conservative Islamic cultures and van Gogh was subsequently assassinated by an Islamic extremist. Ali is a former member of the Dutch Parliament and currently a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C
WORLD CAFE
David Bromberg plays a full band’s worth of instruments, including acoustic and electric guitar, fiddle, and dobro. One of the most proficient musicians of his era, Bromberg appears on more than 100 studio albums as a sideman and guest performer, including appearances on songs by Bob Dylan, Chubby Checker and Ringo Starr. His widespread talents and odd approach to folk, rock and bluegrass music led him to venture out on his own and record studio albums as a frontman. Bromberg has since become a popular live draw, often performing with his “big band” on a host of instruments and covering many of his own and other popular tracks. After a lengthy recording hiatus, Bromberg recently returned with his first album since 1990’s Sideman Serenade. Titled Try Me One More Time, it marks the return of an ambitious and gifted showman. Here, Bromberg talks to World Cafe host David Dye about the violin repair shop he owns in Wilmington, Del., and why he returned to making music after all these years.