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If Wyclef Jean is the best-known Haitian artist in the U.S., then Jowee Omicil would likely qualify as the most eclectic. Omicil's mastery of just about every wind instrument turns his latest album into a musical world journey from Afro-jazz to Haitian kompa to soul.

The soul icon burst back on to the scene this year with Interpretations: The British Rock Songbook, on which she covers classic rock tracks. LaVette joins Claudia Marshall at WFUV to perform two songs from the record and discuss how the project came about.

Bird is on the brain at NPR music, so the blog editor and his boss listen to an uptempo bebop classic from 1947. It features Max Roach, Bud Powell, Tommy Potter and a young trumpeter named Miles Davis.

The piano-playing legends team up to take their new record, The Union, on the road. Listen to John and Russell perform the album in its entirety, as well as a number of their own hits.

Reacting to the vocal acrobatics of 19th-century opera, Monk's vocal music draws inspiration from the clarity of medieval and folk traditions. The result is a sound that feels both ancient and new.

A recent 13-CD box set called Next Stop Is Vietnam: The War on Record 1961-2008 documents the music that dominated the airwaves during the Vietnam War. Rock historian Ed Ward says the compilation could have used some "conscientious curation."

Washburn almost left the U.S. for China, where she'd planned to spend the rest of her days practicing law. As luck would have it, though, her growing fascination with learning the banjo led her to an unlikely recording career. Washburn's new album is titled City of Refuge.

Portico Quartet's "The Visitor" mixes the flavor of indigenous percussive music with a heady, chamber-jazz rigor, creating sounds both ethereal and musically solid.

Aaron Neville has been making records for 50 years. His newest recording, I Know I've Been Changed, is a selection of gospel favorites from his childhood.

Charles Baxter is a genius of the quotidian. From his earliest stories on, he has shown a gift for illuminating the surreal just below the surface of daily life.