Musicians

In the 1930s, people danced in New Orleans nightclubs to the sweet and melodic jazz of Creole singer and trumpeter Lionel Ferbos. Now they sit at tables and sip cocktails, watching the 97-year-old perform as one of the city's oldest working jazz musicians. He performs regularly at French Quarter clubs and has appeared at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival annually since its beginning in 1970. A birthday celebration is planned for Ferbos tonight at the Snug Harbor Jazz Bistro.

Netflix Inc. is shutting down a division that invested in low-budget films and documentaries, saying the Red Envelope Entertainment unit competed with its main suppliers, Hollywood studios. Red Envelope, with about 50 employees, invested in more than 100 films, including "The Bituminous Coal Queens of Pennsylvania," a documentary about a small-town beauty pageant, and "Favela Rising," a documentary about Rio de Janeiro street musicians.

Wendy MELVOIN and Lisa Coleman score the music for the NBC series "Heroes." The show's soundtrack goes into wide release Aug. 19, and a Wendy and Lisa score album arrives this fall. They've just finished their first album in a decade -- it's being previewed at wendyandlisa.com. They live and work in L.A. How fast do you have to work? Don't they push the episodes pretty tight to air date? Lisa: We do probably an average of about 35 minutes per show.

Sequestered in a dank prison cell here, Ethiopia's biggest reggae star awaits trial in a deadly hit-and-run case that has galvanized the nation. Federal prosecutors say Tewodros Kassahun, dubbed the Bob Marley of Ethiopia, fled after striking a homeless boy with his BMW. They call it a case of celebrity bad behavior. Fans say the singer, also known as Teddy Afro, is being framed because of his music's perceived anti-government message.

As the guitarist for hard-edged pop-rock band Incubus, Mike Einziger has headlined arenas and festivals around the world. But standing in a rehearsal room at Los Angeles Valley College in front of an assembly of trained musicians gearing up to perform his "End.>vacuum," an ambitious "Realization in Nine Movements" that will have its premiere today at UCLA's Royce Hall, he seems, well, nervous.

In the last several months, L.A.-based singer-songwriter Meiko has landed not one but two new songs on the ABC taste-making drama "Grey’s Anatomy” and released an album that's receiving some warm reviews. But to hear her tell it, the big break she'd been waiting for came when she got a shot at cocktail waitressing.

LILA DOWNS is an artist who always seemed to have her act together. The Mexican American singer has a stunning voice, a confident multicultural vision grounded in her Mixtec Indian roots and a successful 15-year career in world music circles. What she doesn't have is a child. Downs faced her inability to conceive as she approached her 40th birthday this month, and the productive artist suddenly felt barren. Depressed and drinking, the together performer fell apart. "What . . .

Most musicians, even country-leaning ones, know more about horsepower than the power of one horse. But on a recent visit from his Nashville home, J.D. Souther -- who helped lay the foundation for the Southern California country rock sound nearly four decades ago as part of the musical community that included Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt, Bonnie Raitt and future members of the Eagles -- took an afternoon off and rented a horse for an impromptu ride into the hills of Griffith Park.

Charlie Lustman is on a musical mission to help people feel better. He's written and stars in the first pop operetta about surviving cancer, "Made Me Nuclear," now at the Santa Monica Playhouse through December. The sweet, sad and humorous one-man show chronicles Lustman's bout with cancer, beginning with receiving the diagnosis to being declared clean of the disease after a year of chemotherapy.

A few days before his 90th birthday, Bebo Valdes contemplates his memories and melodies on a hotel terrace with a view of waves dancing in an African breeze. Valdes puts aside the coffee he is nursing and examines two CDs. One is "Lagrimas Negras" ("Black Tears"), the surprise crossover sensation that made him an international star four years ago.