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Jazz is strange enough for some listeners. Dig a little deeper and it gets ever so bizarre. Some musicians take instruments from other traditions and make it their own. Some go for the big and bold. Others just invent. Hear the strange worlds of Cloud Chamber Bowls, the daxophone, mollusks and more.

Soul singer Lee Fields may be a rhythm-and-blues veteran, but don't call him a relic. Since the 1970s, the North Carolina native has amassed a prolific catalog of albums, and part of the secret to his success has been flexibility. To younger fans, Fields is retro-soul royalty. For his older fans, Fields has been a stalwart of Southern soul music.

Okay, so Lady Gaga and The Black Eyed Peas are atop pop charts everywhere. But Talk of the Nation wants to know: What else is popular where you live? And how did you hear about it? A popular musician, a Kenyan radio DJ and an international music expert discuss.

At a time when jobs are anything but disposable, it's hard to imagine what it would take to drive workers out the door voluntarily. But when you're eventually pushed to the brink, you're going to need consolation and encouragement in the form of five great rock tunes.

As a kid, Halloween means dressing up with friends, looking for the spots with the best candy, and stopping for pranks along the way. As you get older, you're stuck handing out rather than filling up. Halloween may have a different sense of rhythm now, but some of the best Halloween ear candy hasn't changed.

Born in the '60s, soul-jazz is a groove-oriented style built from the bottom up. You take a strong bass line, establish a steady groove between the bass and drums, and then embellish that groove with riffs and melody lines that draw heavily from gospel, blues and R&B.

April is Jazz Appreciation Month, as well as National Poetry Month. Hear five songs that were originally written as poems to be read, not as lyrics to be sung. Each jazz artist here transformed a poem into lyrics that fit his or her particular style and phrasing, and then composed music to round out the interpretation.

Day to Day asked artists to send their musical takes on the California Dream. Among dozens of submissions, one track stood out because of its unique approach: The instruments are urban sounds. Quinn Kiesow spent 80 hours piecing together an array of noises to make "Los Angeles."

Were the 1980s the worst years for music? NPR listeners seem to think so, according to the results of our poll. When asked to pick the best year for music, nearly everyone skipped the '80s entirely.

Record collectors entranced by the otherworldly sounds of Ethiopian funk and jazz of the 1960s and 70s had only rare 45s to slake their thirst until the Ethiopiques series of albums hit US shores in the late 90s. Those albums feature some of the best music to come out of the scene, but still more albums await re-release.