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The Decemberists are a rock group from Portland, Oregon, with a strange demeanor. Their lyrics sound like they were written by an expert Scrabble player, and their songs are often period pieces that suggest odd folk tales. Their new CD, The Crane Wife, takes its title from an actual folk tale, and according to critic Will Hermes, it's as remarkable musically as it is verbally.

A new album features the late Ray Charles playing with the Count Basie Orchestra, but Charles never actually recorded with the group. The tracks were mashed together by an audio engineer who used to play with Charles.

Anyone looking for a quick sense of where Beck's at in 2006 can get it by cueing up "Cell Phone's Dead," one of 17 songs from the richly textured new The Information. The track gathers the alternating currents of Beck's art into one tidy and nearly timeless package.

Think the ukulele is just a cheap, plastic toy to be played under a palm tree? One listen to Jake Shimabukuro and you'll change your mind. The Hawaiian-born virtuoso visits NPR to show what the tiny instrument can do.

Years after breaking through as one of the most innovative and musically gifted acts in hip-hop, The Roots' members return with Game Theory, another groundbreaking collection of stellar and often political material.

Nuru Kane arrives at his blues by way of Malian traditions, and blends it with his roots in Senegal, the traditions of the Gnawa people and his life in France. Playing guitar and the traditional Gumbiri three-stringed bass, he creates a musical journey that covers centuries, continents and many ways of thinking.

Sasha Dobson carries on in the jazz tradition of past greats like Ella Fitzgerald, with a sultry voice and extensive performance experience, but she remains unconventional . Now 26, Dobson has been performing professionally since she was 16, in the process crafting a unique fusion of worldly jazz.

On a new CD, Streams of Expression, tenor sax player Joe Lovano performs three songs arranged by Gil Evans for the Miles Davis Nonet. The selections form the origins of the "cool sound" in jazz. They're part of a suite sewn together by Gunther Schuller, who played with Davis.

The actress plays the title role in the new biopic Judy, which chronicles the iconic entertainer months before her death in 1969.

Guirira said it was interesting to explore "toxic masculinity" as a perpetrator instead of an object - and that the role brought up a lot of questions.