Radio 4 on Music

Robert Wyatt has been recognised as a prog-rock drummer, jazz composer, avant-garde cornet player, artist and activist in a wheelchair. But, above all else, he has been known by one of the most instantly recognisable and distinctive voices of the last fifty years.Forever associated with Shipbuilding, Elvis Costello's song written in reaction to the Falklands War, Wyatt's voice and the causes he gives voice to are intricately entwined. This intimate radio portrait, in his own words, traces Wyatt's journey from the psychedelic excesses of Soft Machine (appearing both with Jimi Hendrix and at the BBC Proms), through the life-changing accident that has confined him to a wheelchair for almost forty years, to recent celebrated musical projects that are reaching new audiences. Produced by Alan Hall. A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4.

Ten years ago rap superstar Jay-Z was struggling to get a record deal after being spurned by every major label - so he started his own. A decade on, with 20 million CD sales under his belt, he is now a major music industry player, and currently reigns as president of the legendary Def Jam records. He built on his success with lucrative sidelines in the fashion industry, a chain of bars, his own brand of vodka, and is also part-owner of a professional basketball team. Now some of America's biggest brands are hiring him in hope his business savvy can help them, too. Finance guru Alvin Hall meets Shawn Carter a.k.a Jay-Z for an in-depth discussion charting the birth of his business empire and rise from the notorious Marcy Projects in Brooklyn to C.E.O’s office, revealing the story of a man who has become a brand in his own right. This programme was originally broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on December 2, 2006.Presenter: Alvin Hall Producer: Richard Fenton-Smith Editor: Tony Phillips

Broadcaster Toby Amies digs into the archives to discover the value and significance of old vinyl. He uncovers a network of dealers and buyers, supplying a community of 'crate diggers' and 'beat miners' and a world in which samples from records bought for a few pence in a car boot sale can provide the basis for a million-selling hit.

In November 2005, Kate Bush broke a 12 year silence with the release of her double album 'Aerial', In this programme she gives a very rare interview to John Wilson in a special edition of Front Row, where she talks about why the album took so long to appear and tells some of the stories behind the songs.

Cerys Matthews celebrates the life of one of her musical heroines, the great gospel singer Mahalia ("Halie") Jackson, who died in 1972. Jackson became one of the most influential gospel singers in the world at the height of her popularity, inspiring singers like Aretha Franklin and Mavis Staples. But she was also one of the unsung heroes of the civil rights movement in America, described by the legendary historian and broadcaster Studs Terkel as one of the bravest people he'd ever met.As a child she suffered illness, poverty and deprivation. The Church was her shelter. During the late 1920s, at the height of the great migration, she toured Illinois performing in churches. But it was in Chicago that she made her name and carved out a place for herself as the first professional gospel singer. She refused to sing secular music, a pledge she kept throughout her professional life. Even Louis Armstrong couldn't persuade her to sing jazz with him. By the 1950s and 60s, touring across Europe, she was being described as "the greatest spiritual singer alive." Throughout, she remained a close friend and comrade of Martin Luther King, travelling with him to the deepest parts of the segregated south and often singing at gatherings where he spoke including at the famous march on Washington.In this programme Cerys shares her passion for Mahalia with another huge fan, Sir Tom Jones. She also talks to gospel singer Vermettya Royster and to the Reverend Stanley Keeble both of whom knew and played with Mahalia. We also hear archive recordings of the historian Studs Terkel talking with Mahalia in the years when they became close friends. We hear from blues and gospel writers Val Wilmer and Viv Broughton. As well as hearing her live performances.Produced by Sarah Cuddon A Falling Tree Production for BBC Radio 4.

Fela Kuti is Africa's most famous musician. Before his death in 1997 he recorded nearly 50 albums and invented his own genre of music: Afrobeat. In the 70s and 80s his legendary club in Lagos was famed for housing the best live band on Earth. As witnessed by James Brown, Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney. But there was more to Fela Kuti than ground-breaking music. He was also a political revolutionary who spent his life strongly criticising successive military regimes in his native Nigeria. While his contemporaries would sing in more general terms of oppression, Fela singled out his targets, personally naming them in songs which became popular all over Africa. It wasn't long before he was a hero to many working class Nigerians. But his taunts didn't go down so well with the authorities. Nor did his controversial lifestyle: he openly smoked marijuana, declared his home an independent state of Nigeria and married 27 women on the same day. The story goes he was the most arrested person in Nigerian history. He appeared in court hundreds of times, had spells in prison and permanently suffered from his injuries after regular beatings at the hands of the military and police. Fela believed they were also responsible for the death of his mother, who was thrown from an upstairs window when his home was stormed by 1000 soldiers. In 2009 his incredible story was turned in to a successful Broadway musical and this April it performed in Lagos for the first time. Fela Kuti was coming home. But while the rest of the world is finally paying attention to this musical and political revolutionary why will you struggle to hear any of his music on Nigerian radio? Have they forgotten Fela? Or do the powers that be still find his music offensive? Radio 4 visited Lagos to find the answers.

In a rare interview, Neil Young talks to John Wilson about his album 'Americana' and his long, somewhat unpredictable career. He talks about his politics, the current state of the protest song and the joys of playing with his longterm sparring partners Crazy Horse.

Robin Denselow profiles the musician Youssou N'Dour as he reaches his 50th birthday, and travels to Senegal to interview the singer in his home city of Dakar. Denselow analyses not just his music but the way N'Dour has used it for the benefit of his country and his continent. He had huge success with the duet 7 Seconds with Neneh Cherry in 1994, but he has been making music for nearly 40 years and has collaborated with many international artists. Contributors include Peter Gabriel, Branford Marsalis, DJ Charlie Gillett and Senegalese band Orchestra Baobab.A Unique production for BBC Radio 4.

John Aizlewood examines the oft derided genre of Progressive Rock, a catch all term for a variety of bands from Pink Floyd to Yes to Hawkwind to Jethro Tull. He talks to Floyd's David Gilmour, Rick Wakeman of Yes and Keith Emerson, and ponders the subtle difference between 'Prog' and 'Progressive', before asking the difficult question - was any of it any good?

Billy Preston was a musical genius. A child prodigy, he was first seen as a small boy performing live on national TV with Nat King Cole. He was a star of the Hammond Organ, an accomplished dancer and a talented singer-songwriter. He is the only person 'officially' recognised as the fifth Beatle, although that title would turn out to be more of a millstone than a milestone. By the 1970s he'd written three number one singles, toured and recorded with the Rolling Stones and collaborated with some of the biggest names in pop: Bob Dylan, Ray Charles, Little Richard, Eric Clapton, Sly Stone, the Jackson 5 and Aretha Franklin to name just a few. His musical career was out of this world but his personal life was a disaster. He spent much of his life battling with drugs and even ended up in jail. Fellow keyboard player and fan Rick Wakeman explores his incredible story. With contributions from the likes of Jools Holland, Bill Wyman, Pete Townshend and many more, this documentary also reveals - for the first time - the secret he spent his life suppressing. A secret his former manager Joyce Moore believes fuelled his personal problems.

Nick Barraclough pays tribute to arguably one of the least recognised jobs in pop, that of the backing vocalist. Tracing the evolution of vocal harmony from Medieval canon through to Gladys Knight and the Pips, he draws a straight line from the ‘Fa-la-las’ of Tudor song through to 50s doowop with the help of arranger and musicologist Harvey Brough. Along the way we'll hear examples of the art from The Shangri-Las to Steely Dan, and find out what happens when session singers mover their larynxes.

Ziggy Stardust was a rock and roll fantasy. But David Bowie's fictional rockstar, around whom his 1972 album, stage show, and film were built, was inspired by a real performer, Vince Taylor, born in Isleworth, Middlesex. This programme uncovers the truth about a singer whose wild lifestyle ultimately destroyed him, but in so doing he gave rise to a myth that transcended glam-rock and science fiction. His record "Brand New Cadillac" remains to this day a British rock 'n' roll classic, covered later by The Clash.But Vince was frustrated by his limited success in Britain and, already displaying the unpredictable behaviour and volcanic temper that were to dog him for the rest of his days, he moved to France where the "ye-ye" crowd really went wild for him. They called him 'Le Diable Noir' - the Black Devil.Decked out in black leathers, chains, kohl eye make-up and with his hair greased up into a high pompadour he was immediately signed to the French Barclay label. But fuelled by alcohol and drugs Vince's behaviour became increasingly erratic. At a party he tried LSD for the first time. In his state of mind at the time it was absolutely the very last thing that he needed.Vince Taylor underwent a kind of public breakdown at his next gig, where he started claiming he was a divine being. David Bowie bumped into him in London and later said: "Vince Taylor was the inspiration for Ziggy...He always stayed in my mind as an example of what can happen in rock n roll. I'm not sure if I held him up as an idol or as something not to become. There was something very tempting about him going completely off the edge." The programme, presented by MARTYN DAY, tracks down many of the people who worked with Taylor, including members of his original band and his family.

In 1938, pianist and jazz pioneer Jelly Roll Morton was running a bar in New York, unable to get anyone to play his music and having failed to make much money out of his compositions. It was there that broadcaster Alistair Cooke came across him and persuaded folklorist Alan Lomax to record Morton at the piano, singing and reminiscing about his days in New Orleans. The resulting tapes form the basis for this programme. Historian Marybeth Hamilton examines the recordings, which lay untouched for years because of their explicitly violent and misogynistic content, but nevertheless paint a vivid portrait of the early days of jazz. The programme contains some strong language which may offend.

Music critic Pete Paphides tells the story behind three 'follow-up' albums - from Dexys Midnight Runners, Fleetwood Mac and Suede - with tales of musical pressure, creative differences, personal politics and mixed results. How many bands have found themselves with a massive and often unexpected hit album, only to struggle with the creation of their next opus? Sometimes the follow-up exceeds the first album, but often nerves kick in and bands are removed from the very stimulus that created their magic in the first place, finding themselves in a world of creative confusion, sycophants and accountants. Pete Paphides talks to musicians, producers, and critics to explore the stories of follow-up albums with the same expert knowledge he brought to Lost Albums. Programme 1: Dexys Midnight Runners - Don't Stand Me Down. Kevin Rowland and Helen O'Hara give rare interviews about a pivotal time in Dexys Midnight Runners' history. Having been the best selling UK band of 1982 with their massive hit single Come On Eileen and the hugely popular album Too-Rye-ay, Dexys took some time to consider what to do next. Don't Stand Me Down was brave and different to Too-Rye-Ay. Rowland had a clear vision and went to great lengths to record and mix it to his own specifications. His interest in his Irish roots and Irish politics was one of the themes of the record. Misunderstood in its day, it received poor reviews but has since gone on to receive critical acclaim. Produced by Laura Parfitt A White Pebble Media Production for BBC Radio 4.

John Wilson tells the story of American music promoter Bill Graham. Through his work with the top bands of the day, Graham pioneered big concerts in well-equipped venues and was the first to use rock music to raise money for good causes.Contributors include Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood, biographer Robert Greenfield and British promoter Harvey Goldsmith.

Mark Lamarr looks at the little-known story of Memphis Minnie, known for her guitar skills, her rowdy ways and the song 'When the Levee Breaks' a musical celebration of a key moment in Blues history.'Levee', later made famous by Led Zeppelin and Dylan, was released in 1929, long before guitars found amplification, in reference (like many blues songs of the time), to the great Mississippi flood of 1927. The flood was a huge factor in the Migration of African Americans into what would become the great RnB and Blues towns of Detroit, Memphis & Chicago. When the Levee Breaks is its most famous telling.Neither born in Memphis nor called Minnie, the musician who wrote and recorded it travelled that now well worn blues journey both physically and musically in the first wave of blues musicians emerging from the Delta in the late 20s. When the Levee Breaks was one of over two hundred songs written by Minnie during her lifetime, many are blues classics. Though her story has been largely ignored when compared to Robert Johnson, Leadbelly and other Blues artists of the time. In a journey that starts along the banks of the Mississippi in a post Katrina New Orleans and ends in the promised land of the Blues, Chicago, Mark Lamarr explores her story, the flood itself and the development of the Blues that emerged around the Great Migration. Producer: Rob Alexander A Pier Production for BBC Radio 4.

Stephen Evans talks to record producer Rick Rubin, who resurrected the faltering career of Johnny Cash in the early 1990s. Rubin talks about his close relationship with the country star and the remarkably personal music that came out of it.

The story of American traditional music is dominated by the father and son team John and Alan Lomax who discovered, recorded, and popularised the music of the poor, the dispossessed and voiceless. During Alan Lomax 's 1959 tourofthe southern states, he was accompanied by his then lover, English folk singer Shirley Collins , and here she tells the story of how he recorded the sounds of a world that was fast disappearing, but which still influences popular music today.

In the summer of 1987 Britain's best loved indie band abruptly came to end when guitarist Johnny Marr sensationally quit. The Morrissey/Marr partnership that had produced such a wealth of finely crafted pop tunes was over, just weeks after the group finished recording their fourth album, "Strangeways, Here We Come." Since then, all four band members have separately pronounced the LP as their best work. Bass player Andy Rourke and drummer Mike Joyce also claim that, at the time, they were blissfully unaware of any conflict. So what happened? In this final part of the Swansong series, Stuart Maconie examines the circumstances surrounding the final recording by The Smiths, revealing the reasons behind one of the most famous breakups in British pop history. With new interviews from Mike Joyce, Andy Rourke and producer Stephen Street and contributions from music journalist Sian Pattenden and Morrissey biographer Simon Goddard.

In this BBC Radio 4 programme, Tracey McLeod rewinds over half a century to the golden age of the Girl Group. The songs of groups like the Chantels and Shirelles were songs sung by girls for girls. These groups, formed at the dawning of the pop music industry, paved the way for the likes of The Shirelles, The Ronettes, The Crystals, The Shangri-Las, and eventually The Supremes. We hear recollections from those involved as well as observations from writer Charlotte Greig and producer Pete Waterman.