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Milo Miles talks about the music of Brazilian singer, songwriter, and bandleader Marisa Monte. Monte produces her own records, organizes bands and shapes every aspect of her career. She released a pair of albums earlier this year, Universo ao Meu Redor, and Infinito Particular.

Since 1996, Sunny Day Real Estate's Jeremy Enigk has experienced band break-ups, reunions and a widely publicized conversion to Christianity. What remains is a man who's grown up and brought his lovely voice and sweet melodies out from behind layers of blaring bluster.

Known since the 1970s for his distinctive, gravelly voice, singer-songwriter Tom Waits has since given up whiskey for family life. But echoes of his hard-living ways can still be heard in his music.

Rice's music demands close attention: Whether he's singing in an aching whisper or yelling amid strings and other pomp (often in the same song), he's a nuanced performer who isn't afraid to lay his feelings bare. "Elephant" finds him carrying on in top form, in an epic ballad that showcases his considerable emotional and vocal range.

Music critic Robert Christgau recently got fired from a job he had held for 32 years. But when he went looking for some musical catharsis, he found his punk standbys didn't work anymore. That's when he stumbled on Crunk Hits Vol. 2, a collection of dance and hip-hop songs with a raw energy full of angst-ridden pleasure.

It has been 30 years since Keith Jarrett released The Koln Concert, a recording of solo piano improvisations that has sold over 3 million copies — far more than most jazz records. It was a breakthrough for the 60-year-old pianist and composer, who studied classical music in his youth and got his start playing jazz with Art Blakey, Charles Lloyd and Miles Davis. After the success of Koln, Jarrett began doing regular solo concerts. But in the late 1990s, a battle with chronic fatigue syndrome forced him to rest at his home in rural New Jersey. Last September, the pianist performed at Carnegie Hall. The concert became a two-CD set. Tom Moon has a review.

Aretha Franklin, the queen of soul, talks with Alex Chadwick about her performance on a Golden Globe-nominated song. Franklin is one of several artists who collaborated on "Never Gonna Break My Faith," featured in the film Bobby. It is now up for the Golden Globe's best original song award.

The ancient stringed instrument has taken the Iraqi musician from Baghdad to New Mexico. He talks about his journey and his new CD, When the Soul Is Settled: Music of Iraq.

A performer of boundless energy, Sammy Davis Jr. was known for plowing over audiences with flim-flam and razzle-dazzle. But in the studio, the diminutive don of the Rat Pack was, at times anyway, a serious singer. Here, he performs in a desolate cocktail bar, with only a guitarist for support.

Zach Condon is a young singer-songwriter who grew up in Albuquerque, N.M., but whose musical interests have looked abroad. His debut, which drew on Balkan gypsy music, was a surprise hit among Internet indie-rock cognescenti last year. His second set with the band Beirut is The Flying Club Cup.