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Tom Hanks stars as the title character in the gripping Captain Phillips, opposite the compelling Somali-born actor Barkhad Abdi as the leader of a pirate band that attacks his freighter in the Gulf of Aden. (Recommended)

We remember Dave Brubeck, who died Wednesday at age 91, with a March 2012 review from jazz critic Kevin Whitehead, who wrote about a few of the more obscure titles from Dave Brubeck's quartet.

Oregon saxophonist Rich Halley takes inspiration from the Wallowa mountain range on his new album Crossing the Passes. On Boss of the Plains, Chicago-based trio Wheelhouse makes music that evokes the Great Plains and wind chimes on a porch when the weather changes.

For a dozen years, a music festival that highlights the music of Africa has been held near Timbuktu, Mali. This year, a nationalist uprising and ongoing battles made the Festival au Desert impossible. A new recording from the most recent event helps fans continue to celebrate the music.

Shipp, a mainstay of New York's downtown free jazz scene, likes big blocky chords and loud piano sounds. Critic Kevin Whitehead says the new album by the Matthew Shipp trio is "heavy in a good way."

Born in 1916, Christian died when he was just 25 years old. Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead calls him "the single greatest influence on a signature 20th-century instrument."

Since the 1990s, New York trumpet player Steven Bernstein has been the ringleader of this occasional quartet. This recent album was recorded at a home studio and its rough-hewn quality is just right.

In December, Columbia released a box set of the 19 studio albums Dave Brubeck's quartet recorded between 1955 and 1966. Besides familiar titles like Time Out and Dave Digs Disney, there were a host of all-but-forgotten albums. Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead says a few of them are well-worth tracking down.

Springsteen told Rolling Stone that Wrecking Ball is "as direct a record as I ever made." It's also one of his most stylistically diverse, including elements of gospel and hip-hop as well as rock and the blues. Rock critic Ken Tucker says the music "testifies to a bottomless ingenuity, invention and exhilaration."

Dozens of Spanish-language radio and TV stations in Arizona have banded together to air a show about the Supreme Court's upcoming decision on the state's controversial immigration law. The half-hour program will air simultaneously Wednesday night.