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With these 2009 releases, you'll find a few fresh faces: musicians hovering around age 30, including the young Jonathan Biss and the sublime Dutch fiddler Janine Jansen. Plus, this year proved exceptionally strong for music by and from Russians. Enjoy a sampling of both classic and less-familiar fare.

Jazz icon Louis Armstrong didn't just leave behind a treasure trove of musical recordings; he also documented hundreds of his private conversations on tape. Those recordings served as the basis for Terry Teachout's new biography of the legendary musician, Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong.

As a former foreign correspondent who's visited 82 countries and traveled nearly 2 million miles, Nicholas Kralev has felt the pain of air travel — but he's also learned its secrets. He shares his tips in Decoding Air Travel.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell says two suspected Iraqi terrorists, captured in his home state of Kentucky, should be sent to Guantanamo Bay for trial. Attorney General Eric Holder says that's not a decision politicians should make. Holder lost an earlier political battle over trying Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in New York.

A federal audit finds Medicare spending on hospice care for patients in nursing homes increased by 69 percent to $4.9 billion over just four years. Much of the increase was due to longer duration of hospice care in nursing homes compared with services provided at home.

Once upon a time, tacos were a Mexican snack. Now they're an all-American institution. Gustavo Arellano leads us across Southern California in search of the roots of the American taco.

A hospital that may charge hundreds of thousands of dollars to treat a dying patient generally won't charge the family a penny to do an autopsy to figure out what caused their patient's death.

We're now a decade into the 21st century, so it's time to check in on the blues and see how it's doing in the relatively new world of loops, samples and remixing technology.

The Justice Department confirmed a report that there wasn't enough evidence to bring an indictment. The tapes depicted interrogation of terrorism detainees during the Bush administration. They were destroyed five years ago amid an uproar over photos of detainee abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

On this edition of All Songs Considered, host Bob Boilen talks with Carrie Brownstein, Stephen Thompson and Robin Hilton about the year in music.

This week, From the Top comes from San Antonio, Texas. The talented Texans include a 16-year-old baritone from Fort Worth performing Handel and a 16-year-old clarinetist from Duncanville, playing Carl Maria von Weber. And a special guest, the composer and fiddler Mark O'Connor, makes music with all of the kids on today's show. This program originally aired Apr. 4, 2007.

It started as a banner year for female candidates. More ran in party primaries than ever before, especially Republicans. Some posted big victories Tuesday. But for the first time since the 1970s, the total number of women in the new Congress will likely drop.