The Dirty Dozen Brass Band On Mountain Stage

Brian Blauser/Mountain Stage Dirty Dozen Brass Band.

Brian Blauser/Mountain Stage "Blackbird Special""Jook""Trippin' Inside a Bubble""We Gonna Roll""Best of All""Tomorrow"

The Dirty Dozen Brass Band makes its sixth appearance on Mountain Stage, recorded live in Charleston, W.V. Widely credited with revitalizing the sound of New Orleans jazz, the band blew down musical barriers by combining its love of traditional sounds with funk and bebop. Built around the idea of jazz as a constantly evolving organism, the group has shared the stage with Grateful Dead, Elvis Costello, Miles Davis, David Bowie, 2 Live Crew and The Black Crowes.

In celebrating 35 years together, The Dirty Dozen Brass Band kicks off this set with the dark grooves of "Blackbird Special," the lead track from its first album, My Feet Can't Fail Now. But the remainder of this set is drawn from the new Twenty Dozen — including "Jook," which wasn't heard on the radio broadcast of this show.

This performance was originally published on April 23, 2012.

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'Fresh Air' At 25: A Live Musical Tribute

Fresh Air's staff, surrounded by employees of WHYY at their 25th-anniversary party.

Melody Kramer/Fresh Air Fresh Air's staff, surrounded by employees of WHYY at their 25th-anniversary party.

Melody Kramer/Fresh Air

This show was originally broadcast on May 11, 2012.

Friday, May 11, 2012 marked the 25th anniversary of the day Fresh Air became a daily national NPR program. Before that, the show was broadcast only on WHYY in Philadelphia. How long ago was May 11, 1987? On Fresh Air's first edition, TV critic David Bianculli reviewed the finale of the TV series Hill Street Blues.

Terry Gross, shown above in 1987, has been host of Fresh Air since 1975, when it was broadcast only in greater Philadelphia.

NPR's Fresh Air

A 25th anniversary is a pretty big event in the life of a show. To celebrate, it seemed appropriate to do something that reflected our 25 years on the air, so we decided to select some of Fresh Air's great live musical performances from our archive. Among the performers on Friday's show: Peggy King, Susannah McCorkle, Loudon Wainwright III, Charlie Haden, Shirley Horn, Arthur Alexander, Richard Thompson, Dave Frishberg, Rebecca Kilgore, Nick Lowe, John Doe and Catherine Russell.

So many other great musicians have performed on our show over the past 25 years. (You can find many of their performances online here.) We feel very fortunate — not many shows get to celebrate a 25th anniversary — because we've been given the greatest anniversary gift a show can ask for: you. Whether you've been listening for 25 years or just a few days, you have given us the privilege of marking this anniversary and continuing to produce Fresh Air. On behalf of all of us who have worked on the show over the past 25 years, our current crew and our alumni, thank you. A lot.

Some of the singing you hear on Fresh Air isn't from concerts; it's just guests breaking out into song. Click the audio above to hear the medley — can you identify the voices?

You'll find answers below:

Fresh Air's executive producer is Danny Miller. The people who work so hard to find our guests, edit our interviews and keep us on the air include Amy Salit, Phyllis Myers, Roberta Shorrock, Sam Briger, Ann Marie Baldonado, Lauren Krenzel, John Myers, John Sheehan (who edited and mixed this anniversary show), Heidi Saman, Teresa Madden, Melody Kramer, Dorothy Ferebee and Audrey Bentham.

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Caleb Klauder Country Band On Mountain Stage

Brian Blauser/Mountain Stage Caleb Klauder Country Band.

Brian Blauser/Mountain Stage "Can I Go Home With You""Innocent Road""Just a Little""I'd Jump the Mississippi"

The Caleb Klauder Country Band makes its first appearance on Mountain Stage, recorded live at the Culture Center Theater in Charleston, W.V. If you're a fan of traditional country music in the vein of Hank Williams, Lefty Frizzell and the Louvin Brothers, then these songs will sound like old friends calling your name.

Based out of Portland, Ore., by way of Washington and Georgia, Klauder also plays in the highly regarded Foghorn Stringband alongside Country Band guitarist Reeb Willms. They're joined by Russ Blake on steel guitar and Jesse Emerson (formally of The Decemberists) on upright bass. Mountain Stage band member Ammed Solomon sits in on drums for a set which draws from the band's two most recent albums, Dangerous Me's and Poisonous You's and Western Country.

This performance was originally published on April 13, 2012.

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Red Wanting Blue On Mountain Stage

December 20, 2012 Red Wanting Blue has been called "America's local band" for its dogged touring habits. The group makes its Mountain Stage debut playing country music and Americana-influenced rock.

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Dave Brubeck Quartet On JazzSet

At the opening of his 2009 Newport Jazz Festival appearance, Dave Brubeck said, "A few concerts ago, we were in Washington, D.C., and [it] was Duke Ellington Month. So every church, joint and street corner were doing Duke Ellington, and I said to myself, 'He was my mentor, he helped me get started. Why don't I do some Ellington?' [And I said to the guys], 'Follow me, and I'll think of tunes as we go along.'"

The Dave Brubeck Quartet got rolling with that "follow me" and an Ellington medley including "Don't Get Around Much Anymore."

Three months later, on Brubeck's 89th birthday, the Kennedy Center honored him along with Mel Brooks, Grace Bumbry, Robert DeNiro and Bruce Springsteen for lifetime achievement in the performing arts. The citation reads: "Dave Brubeck's genius has dazzled us for six decades, and has helped to define an American art form." Brubeck responded that it was significant to him that the honor recognized the importance of jazz. At the Kennedy Center Honors concert, Brubeck and his wife Iola looked down from box seats as their sons played his music. Their daughter Catherine is instrumental in Jazz'd 4 Life, an organization that helps young people worldwide.

Dave Brubeck was born Dec. 6, 1920, in Concord, Calif. He died Dec. 5 in his adopted home state of Connecticut. In his six-decade career, Brubeck performed and recorded with Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic; composed music for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Pope John Paul II; and played for Presidents from Johnson to Reagan to Obama. Years before, when Obama was only 10 years old, he attended his first Dave Brubeck concert.

When I was in high school, I saw my first Dave Brubeck performance. It was in Milwaukee, Wis. After almost a decade of piano lessons, I couldn't play even the simplest song by ear. Brubeck swung the door open to a new world of free-flowing, where-is-this-going music. Countless people everywhere followed their first Dave Brubeck concert or recording with a lifelong interest in jazz.

It is our joy to reach into the Dave Brubeck archive for this set from Newport, where he was very much at home. Long live his music.

Dave Brubeck, pianoBobby Militello, flute and saxMichael Moore, bassRandy Jones, drums"C Jam Blues"/"Don't Get Around Much Anymore"/"Mood Indigo"/"Take the 'A' Train" (Ellington/Strayhorn medley)"Stormy Weather" (Arlen/Koehler)"On the Sunny Side of the Street" (Fields/McHugh)"Take Five" (Desmond)"Thank You (Dziekuje)" (Brubeck)

Recording by Steve Remote, Aura Sonic Ltd.; remix in surround sound by Duke Markos.

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Lucy Kaplansky On Mountain Stage

December 11, 2012 Recorded on the eve of Hurricane Sandy, Kaplansky's set is drawn entirely from the singer-songwriter's latest album Reunion, which was inspired by her relationships with various family members.

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A Jazz Piano Christmas 2012

December 14, 2012 NPR Music has an annual tradition in December: Invite some of the world's best jazz keyboard players to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, then set them loose on their favorite holiday tunes. Jason Moran, Taylor Eigsti, Geri Allen and Ellis Marsalis perform live.

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