Fresh Air

Brooks: "I'm An EGOT; I Don't Need Any More"

editor — Mon, 20 May 2013 17:40:00 +0000

Over the 60 years that Mel Brooks has been in the entertainment business, his name has become synonymous with comedy.

Sarah Vaughan: A New Box Set Revels In Glorious Imperfections

Kevin Whitehead — Mon, 20 May 2013 17:01:00 +0000

Singer Sarah Vaughan came up in the 1940s alongside bebop lions Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker, starting out in Earl Hines' big band. Hines had hired her as his singer and deputy pianist, while Gillespie praised her fine ear for chords as she grasped the arcane refinements of bebop harmony.

Fresh Air Weekend: Gerwig, Baumbach, Dawes And Polley

editor — Sat, 18 May 2013 17:09:00 +0000

Fresh Air Weekendhighlights some of the best interviews and reviews from past weeks, and new program elements specially paced for weekends. Our weekend show emphasizes interview with writers, filmmakers, actors and musicians, and often includes excerpts from live in-studio concerts. This week:

Jerry Lee Lewis: Live, Singing As If Life Depended On It

Ed Ward — Fri, 17 May 2013 17:29:00 +0000

It was April 4, 1964, and Jerry Lee Lewis had officially bottomed out. He hadn't charted a record in years, and now, on tour in England and Germany, he was getting paid so little that he couldn't afford to bring his own musicians. Instead, he was forced to use pickup bands in England, and then, when he arrived in Hamburg, a British band called the Nashville Teens was waiting for him. The venue was the Star Club, where The Beatles, who had just leaped into stardom in America, had played not long before.

Bill Hader On Sketch Comedy, Classic Hollywood

editor — Fri, 17 May 2013 17:05:00 +0000

This interview was originally broadcast on Aug. 22, 2012.

Comedian Bill Hader is adept onstage and doing live TV. But he's scared to death of standup.

He remembers watching Chris Rock's 1996 HBO special, Bring the Pain, and thinking, "I don't know how people do that."

"I need a character," Hader tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross.