player in a jazz band will play saxophone and flute and bass clarinet maybe, [light strumming] a minstrelnce court would be employed to play a string instrument, but could also double on a wind instrument like the recorder. [recorder plays high-pitched melody] some of the early instruments are limited in the range of colors. (zajac) a modern oboist can get a full blossomy sound and a very focused sound and a nasty sound, but a player of say a crumhorn, in the renaissance, to take an obvious example-- it makes this one sound. [buzzing, nasal sounds] it's a very peculiar sound, a very nasal sound. and so it seems that renaissance musicians would rely on playing different instruments throughout an evening to give whoever was listening different tone colors or different timbres. [ensemble continues] (zajac) we're not sure if composers wrote music with specific timbres in mind because they don't indicate for the most part what instruments are to be played on the music. we know from other sources, paintings showing instrumental combinations and written records, that there was basically two diff

he is aware of the stereotype of the sinti as carefree that the bonn minstrels. despite the stereotyped, music is a passion for him and a legacy. >> in the 1980's, my family founded a band consisting of my father and my mother's brothers. i was always at their rehearsals and at the performances, and the excitement in between made me a musician. i got infected. >> he grew up in communist east germany when berlin was a divided city. he experienced prejudice early on. it was widespread in both parts of germany -- east and west. >> i got a political school because i was the only dark- skinned kid -- i got bullied at school. >> he made up a new identity for himself, telling people that he came from a country that germans liked. >> "why do you have black hair? why is your skin so brown?" "i am italian," and that was ok. then the gypsy, now considered a derogatory word, -- >> gypsy, now considered derogatory word, was a common term for the sinti. during the nazi era, insults and discrimination reached its height, culminating in the systematic murder of sinti and roma in

i was with the new christian minstrels. i was like, i want to record that.s it on hold. when i finally got my first edition, he let me do it. it was an incredible thing. it came at the psychedelic time of the '60s, you know? my life has been -- that's why it's called "luck or something like it," because i've been so lucky to be here and get there. and the fact i'm going to sing a duet with stephen colbert just really wraps up my life. >> that will be the topper. i want to ask about somebody else. it was a bee gees song. barry gibb wrote it. and dolly parton became a co-star of your life. >> i was singing "islands in the stream," and i said i don't like it anymore. he said, what we need is dolly parton. my manager had just run into her. i know where to get her. 30 minutes later, she comes marching in the studio. dolly doesn't walk anywhere. she marches. when she came in, the song was totally different after that. >> it's "luck or something like it." a memoir out. i know you've been nervous about this all morning long. let's get you over with stephen colbert.

. >> this is charlie lustman, a modern day minstrel. his tale is one of survival.h a rare form of cancer, he had to have his upper jaw removed. >> i was really depressed and angry and afraid but it slipped inside my mind that this is all about how i see things, i could this a different way. so i started to see what recovery looked like. >> he started to show other cancer patients by composing a rock opera that chronicles a bout with cancer from diagnosis to recovery. he's taken it to more than 70 hospitals nationwide. the staff at franklin square hospital started calling him guitar charlie. he says his songs are for them, too. >> it's supposed to inspire both the patients and the staff because we are all going through this together. >> and inspire, it does. lois says when she came in for her appointment, she told her nurse she was exhausted. >> i said i need energy, i need a pill or something to give me energy and she said we will check and see if you can take a vitamin. he was my vitamin. >> charlie also gets a boost from his performances. >> it reminds me how luc