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With her debut album, Exile In Guyville, Liz Phair created an instant classic. The record's frank talk about sex made it essential listening for a generation of women. Now, on its 15th anniversary, Phair looks back at Guyville and the young woman who created it.

In 1907, shortly after publishing his book of love poetry titled Chamber Music, James Joyce penned a letter to his brother Stanislaus: "Some of the verses are pretty enough to be put to music. I hope someone will do so, someone that knows old English music such as I like." A century later, 36 electronic, folk and rock musicians have done just that.

The bass-guitar virtuoso, known for his prodigious soloing, recently released a new solo album, which he says addresses spirituality and mysticism. He speaks with Andrea Seabrook and demonstrates his technique with a few tunes.

When The Beatles' members started Apple Records 40 years ago, they still depended on larger companies for the basics. Independent labels, including some run by musicians, have come a long way since. A small but growing number of musicians are taking the idea of the independent label even further.

Joan Wasser spent the 1990s as an alt-rocker and backup violinist in various bands. But when she started performing as Joan as Police Woman, she developed a knack for punk-informed soul. Hear an interview and stripped-down in-studio performance.

The New Yorker describes the Quavers as moody and enchanting. The two Brooklyn musicians describe themselves as a "space-age Carter family." They stopped by The Bryant Park Project studios to demonstrate.

Blind Pilot is the musical project of Portland, Ore. natives Ryan Dobrowski and Israel Nebeker. The two recorded their debut album, 3 Rounds and a Sound, after completing a tour that took them from Vancouver all the way to San Francisco — by bike. Nebeker says the group now plays as a nine-piece collective, but you would never know it from listening to 3 Rounds. The group offers a minimalist folk sound built on Nebeker's simple acoustic guitar and Dobrowski's sparse drumming.

The Boston-based composer is remembered, 100 years after his birth, for a string of three-minute pops-concert classics such as "Sleigh Ride," "The Typewriter" and "The Syncopated Clock."

The epic "Little Bird" demonstrates Jazzanova's artistic maturation as it envelops the phenomenal Brooklyn-based jazz singer Jose James in an orchestral wash of strings, acoustic guitar, stand-up bass, piano, glockenspiel and inconspicuous drum programming.

Quincy Jones went from performing and arranging to producing. As a record executive, he churned out chart toppers. Always restless, he moved to producing films and TV shows in the 1960s and '70s. Through the '80s and '90s there were more hits: The Color Purple, Michael Jackson's blockbusters and humanitarian work in Africa. At 75, he's still keeping up a blistering pace.