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Born in 1909, Ben Webster is considered one of the most important swing tenors in jazz. He also was a master of ballads, as exemplified on 1959's Ben Webster & Associates. The album features trumpeter Roy Eldridge and tenor saxophonist Coleman Hawkins.

Every year 35,000 new CDs are released. With all those artists clamoring for an audience, it's not surprising that some musical gems get overlooked. Three music business insiders share their picks for CDs that didn't get the attention they deserved.

Even a ubiquitous figure like Chuck Berry has neglected gems gathering spiderwebs in remote corners of his catalog. Blues helps fill in a bit of his legend, showing how he transferred devices used by generations of blues guitarists into the then-new rebellion of rock.

Mariza is a 29-year-old singer of fado — the rich, emotionally textured music tradition from Portugal. She recently spoke with NPR's Melissa Block about her childhood in Lisbon, and about how fado has been her anchor. Hear samples from Mariza's latest CD, Fado Curvo.

The Tokens spent much of the '60s trying to move away from "The Lion Sleeps Tonight," and doo-wop in general. The five-piece experimented unsuccessfully with folk, and then in 1967, primary songwriter Mitch Margo began working on an attempt at contemporary pop.

Emily Haines makes ethereal, piano-driven songs that are dark and gloomy, but utterly infectious. Haines visits Washington, D.C.'s 9:30 Club with her backing band The Soft Skeleton for a night of music originally webcast live on NPR.org Jan. 10.

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.

His pop songcraft mixes the international rhythms and polyglot languages of his native Barcelona. For Dani Carbonell, the voice and songwriting talent behind the band Macaco, musical fusion comes naturally.

In J.S. Bach's day, in Leipzig, the musical event of the season came on Good Friday, when parishioners could hear the passion story told in music. Tenor Ian Bostridge and conductor Ton Koopman join others in a guided tour of Bach's St. Matthew Passion.

Jenny Lewis has the clear voice and honest melodicism of a guitar-strumming angel. But she is so good to look at and so forthright about her sexuality that some of Rilo Kiley's serious-minded natural audience suspect she is a pop starlet on the make, like Rihanna or the pitiable Britney Spears.