NPR Music

Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie is a lifelong Seattle Mariners fan, and such an Ichiro Suzuki devotee he wrote a song about the outfielder. Though he wrote it years ago, he decided this week — when Suzuki was traded to the New York Yankees — was the right time to release "Ichiro's Theme."

At the time of singer-songwriter Sonya Kitchell's first Mountain Stage appearance, recorded in June 2005, she was only 16 — and had released her first album, Words Come Back to Me, just a year earlier. In this archived performance, Kitchell visits Mountain Stage in support of that album, and shows off what host Larry Groce calls "unusual charm and maturity." Her set begins solo before the Mountain Stage band joins her to close out the show.

For his uncompromising and serious music, the 2011 Newport Jazz Festival was eager to present Charles Lloyd. He could bring any group he wanted, they told him. Lloyd said yes, and that he would bring Sangam, an East-West trio with one CD and few performances on the schedule. It was a coup!