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The New York Times doesn't mince words when it writes, "Wayne Shorter is generally acknowledged to be jazz's greatest living composer."

Guitarist and composer Bill Frisell brings his sparkling, atmospheric sound to this episode of Piano Jazz with host Marian McPartland, in a session that originally aired in October 2007.

Few pianists have been as influential to modern jazz practice as McCoy Tyner. His harmonic and rhythmic conceptions, notably displayed as a member of John Coltrane's "classic" quartet, are instantly recognizable. And at age 74, you can still hear his driving left hand and dense chordal suggestions in fine form.

Petra Haden had a problem when she was a child: "I remember watching Looney Tunes cartoons and having the music stuck in my head," the singer and violinist says.

The Paris-based Quatuor Ebene — the "Ebony Quartet" — has risen fast in the musical world with two separate artistic identities. In recent years, audiences have gotten to know the "other" Ebenes — the sophisticated cover band that plays everything from "Miserlou" (the Pulp Fiction theme) to jazz to "Someday My Prince Will Come" (yes, the one from Disney's Snow White).

Miloš Karadaglić first studied guitar at the age of 8 in his home country of Montenegro, formerly part of Yugoslavia. At 14, Karadaglić was invited to play at a concert hall in Paris, and he later traveled to Italy to meet classical guitarist David Russell, who advised him to enroll at the Royal Academy of Music in London.

• Anne Akiko Meyers — the violinist who made news a year ago for an album recorded on her two Stradivarius instruments, including the then record price-breaking "Molitor" Strad, which she purchased for $3.6 million — announced yesterday that she's been given lifetime use of the 1741 "Vieuxtemps" Guarne

South African singer-songwriter Vusi Mahlasela came of age during the 1970s, an era dominated by the violent student uprising in Soweto. From the start, his musical expression has been about love and hope for his country. His songs play as anthems of South Africa's rise from apartheid to democracy and have helped earn him the nickname "The Voice."

Gil Evans was born in Canada in 1912. He latched onto jazz and, in time, taught himself to write it. First, for dancers, Evans arranged tunes off the radio for the Claude Thornhill Orchestra as well as the sweet, warm sounds of flutes and French horns. Then Evans downsized the Thornhill sound to a nonet for The Birth of the Cool.

A lot is about to change for The Lone Bellow, a trio of Southerners who now call Brooklyn home: The band has yet to perform outside of New York, but its self-titled debut album is already charting on iTunes. Its members just quit their day jobs this month so they can go on tour.

You'll see in this performance why they're bound to connect with new fans on the road. Zach Williams, Kanene Pipkin and Brian Elmquist are natural, passionate live performers who play and sing infectious folk-rock in close harmony with startling confidence.

Red Baraat is wild — and loud. It's also a genre unto itself. The Brooklyn ensemble self-identifies as "dhol 'n' brass," a hybrid of Indian bhangra and New Orleans big-band music.

Cristina Pato is a jazz pianist from Spain who also plays flute and sings. But on her new album, Migrations, there's a striking sound not often heard in jazz: a bagpipe. Pato has been playing the traditional gaita (pronounced "GY-tah"), a version of the bagpipe from her native region of Galicia, since she was 4 years old.

• After a five-year search that encompassed some 50 contenders, the Houston Symphony has announced its new music director: Andrés Orozco-Estrada. The 35-year-old Colombian trained in Vienna and will take over from the retiring Hans Graf, who is departing at the end of this season.

We couldn't leave Memphis without a taste of the blues from gospel-blues singer and preacher Rev. John Wilkins. He's the son of Rev. Robert Wilkins, who wrote "Prodigal Son," a song famously covered by The Rolling Stones on Beggars Banquet.

Here, we've got a performance by Rev. John Wilkins with his band — and his daughters on backing vocals. During our interview, Wilkins spoke about his faith and his father, and even sings a version of "Prodigal Son" himself.

This past year was a good one for Naxos Records. In fact, it's been a great quarter century for the company, which has grown from a budget-label punch line to a leading force in classical music recording.

One of the great little-known albums of last year came from a native of Halifax, Nova Scotia — a seasoned and award-winning singer-songwriter who has steadily built a following here in the U.S. Rose Cousins' self-released We Have Made a Spark landed on Folk Alley's Best of 2012 list for its beautiful harmonies, creative arrangements and the sort of arresting songwriting that's sad even as it leaves listeners feeling hopeful.