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The Texas band Midlake has changed its sound dramatically on The Trials of Van Occupanther, transforming its poppy, keyboard-driven music into a deeper, '70s-influenced folk-pop experience. But there's also a refreshingly modern touch to "Roscoe."

Drummer Paul Motian has spent more than 50 years in music, working with jazz luminaries like Bill Evans and Thelonious Monk. At 75, he has a new CD of bebop jazz: Garden of Eden, featuring his own band.

The Texas band Dynah draws on influences ranging from Mick Ronson and Johnny Marr to Radiohead. Wake, its sophomore album, represents a potent distillation of those influences — awash in atmospheric soul, with zero filler.

New York's Looker embraces the DIY approach on "Radio," and it seems at first that the band's enthusiasm outpaces its abilities. But the song works anyway, thanks to Looker's melodic sense and its original take on hoary topics.

Inspired by Sinn Sisamouth and other Cambodian stars of the '60s and '70s, brothers Zac and Ethan Holzman created a fusion cover band — complete with a former Cambodian pop star who had recently moved to Los Angeles.

With the holiday season comes the holly and mistletoe, as well as a new batch of improvisations on holiday classics. WBGO's Gary Walker suggests a few well-aged jazz pairings for eggnog and yule logs.

The pianist rose to prominence as a gifted performer, becoming a mentor and tutor to many. Some of his students are now in his new band, which performs early classics and a new suite written for them.

Legendary bluesman T-Model Ford plays on his own terms. Now in his 80s, Ford has seen all the life you could see, and even spent years on a chain gang for killing a man. So when T-Model Ford yells, "Jack Daniel time!" in this session from KEXP, you know he's going to follow through on a hefty swig.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the founding of the San Francisco band The Residents, a group that's credited with pioneering punk rock, art rock and techno. They presaged the future of independent labels, music videos and CD-ROMs. So, why have so few people heard of them? NPR's Neda Ulaby came up with some answers.

For years, modal jazz, pioneered by Miles Davis and John Coltrane, has been considered too "learned" or "aged" for a following on the fringes of the form to develop. Now, discover songs that show off the funky side of modal jazz.