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Loretta Berning remembers her father and a cherished Victory Vertical piano made during World War II for our StoryCorps Military Voices Initiative.

In a transitional period between different groups with Miles Davis and Anthony Braxton and his fusion band, Return to Forever, Chick Corea recorded a series of solo piano improvisations in 1971. Those recordings and a 1983 follow-up have been reissued in a three-CD box set.

In the liner notes to his new album, Ghost on the Canvas, Campbell writes that it's the last studio record he plans to make after being diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease. Rock critic Ken Tucker says the album "has a melancholy air of valedictory about it."

Fresh Air remembers the life of Vic Chesnutt, a singer-songwriter discovered by R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe in the '90s. Chesnutt recently collaborated with Guy Picciotto of the band Fugazi on his latest album, At the Cut. Chesnutt died Dec. 25; we hear excerpts from his Dec. 1 conversation with Terry Gross, and reflect on his life with Stipe, Picciotto and filmmaker Jem Cohen.

Afrobeat has proven to be the most durable and appealing fusion of African and American pop styles -- in spite of the death of Afrobeat's creator, Fela Kuti. Critic Milo Miles talks about how some smart, determined Afrobeat inheritors both sustain and build upon the style's foundations.

Amid the debate over the appropriateness of kids' use of the Internet comes the release of two kids' music albums that celebrate a less digital world.

Everybody Down, the new album by the English rapper and poet, is a series of glimpses into the lives of everyday Londoners. "You need to take yourself away ... so your characters can speak," she says.

A 65-year-old said she first met and was sexually assaulted by the Aerosmith frontman when she was 16, according to a new lawsuit filed under a California law that extended the statute of limitations.

Jeff Beck, one the most acclaimed guitarists in rock and roll history, died Tuesday after contracting bacterial meningitis, according to his family. He was 78 years old.

The device famous for making human voices sound robotic did not originate in the recording studio. As music journalist Dave Tompkins writes in How to Wreck a Nice Beach: The Vocoder From World War II to Hip-Hop, it began as a speech-encoding machine during World War II. Read an excerpt from Tompkins' book about the vocoder and its unexpected history here.