On “A Different World” he helped define an era. With a Netflix reboot, he helps pass the torch to a new generation.

Missy Mazzoli, whose “Lincoln in the Bardo” opens at the Metropolitan Opera this fall, writes politically urgent, musically eclectic works for a new generation of operagoers.

Puzzling out the HBO show's extraterrestrial metaphor.

The term has lately become synonymous with sonic serenity (and chic merch). But the saxophone great challenged listeners with radical honesty.