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News & Notes pays tribute to late composer and bandleader Duke Ellington on the anniversary of his 106th birthday.

Saxophonist Ravi Coltrane is the son of jazz legend John Coltrane and pianist Alice Coltrane. While Ravi grew up in a musical family, he didn't start a career in jazz until his 20s. Now, with his latest CD, In Flux, some critics say Ravi Coltrane has created a sound all his own. He talks with NPR's Ed Gordon about his music.

Aqualung created a stir in Britain with a pop song that first drew attention as the background for a car advertisement. Now Matt Hales' piano-driven pop act is quietly mounting a U.S. invasion with a new CD, Strange and Beautiful.

This spring, bassist and composer Dave Holland has been touring with his Big Band, and he's released a new recording with the ensemble. The CD is called Overtime, and it's out on his own label, Dare2Records. Holland tells Liane Hansen about swinging with a big-band sound.

On his latest album, Devils & Dust, rocker Bruce Springsteen strips down, musically and spiritually, using his lone voice on spare acoustic songs to explore themes of spirituality, of moral uncertainty and loss. In a two-part interview, the singer talks about his life, songwriting and new album.

Sadness permeates Greg Trooper's new album, though he says it wasn't planned that way. "I always... try to leave room for hope at the end," but a couple of songs on the CD "don't really have any doors out."

Ottorino Respighi based his Botticelli Triptych on three famous paintings by the Italian Renaissance master Sandro Botticelli: Spring, Adoration of the Magi and Birth of Venus.

In the final part of a series on the connection between folk and classical music from around the world, Performance Today turns to the world of American jazz with the Turtle Island String Quartet, the music of Chris Brubeck and the Jacques Loussier Trio.

On her new CD, Duos II, Luciana Souza adds vocals to a Brazilian instrumental tradition: the choro. It's a break from tradition, but it seems to fit a performer who is equal parts samba singer, jazz singer and classical singer. Souza chats with Jacki Lyden.

After 17 days of competition, Russian pianist Alexander Kobrin, 25, has been named the gold medalist of the 2005 Van Cliburn Piano Competition. Joyce Yang of South Korea won silver. Hear Kobrin perform in the final round of the competition.