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For more than 20 years, Gelb has experimented with a combination of Southwestern roots music and lo-fi country as the only constant of the band Giant Sand. proVISIONS is its latest.

After taking a break from touring with the bluesy rock duo The Black Keys, Auerbach produced his first solo album, Keep It Hid, from his self-built analog recording studio. Driven by reverb and riffs, Auerbach's solo work sounds authentic, blunt and powerful.

Lal Meri features three L.A.-based musicians with very different backgrounds. Their cultural ancestries span much of the globe, and they've made careers in genres ranging from soul and jazz to rock 'n' roll and trip-hop. Reviewer Banning Eyre says that the music is more than the sum of its parts.

Afro-Latino culture was in the news this past week with the death of Gilberto Miguel Calderon, who was known by his showbiz name: Joe Cuba. Cuba's music was an organic, cross-cultural reflection of how Afro-Latinos in this country have one foot in both cultures. Felix Contreras explains how Joe Cuba and others did it.

Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews the second album from the indie-pop duo The Bird And The Bee.

Mstislav Rostropovich defined for his era the art and technique of playing the cello. His performance of Dvorak's stirring Cello Concerto with the Berlin Philharmonic remains one of classical music's most lauded recordings.

Jeff "Tain" Watts, an original member of the Wynton Marsalis quintet, has released an album titled Watts. But it's no ego trip; the disc is inspired, at least in part, by L.A.'s Watts neighborhood.

Critic Tom Manoff reviews In Principio, a new collection of pieces for chorus and orchestra by Estonian composer Arvo Part, finding both stark, majestic drama and tender portrayals of humanity.

Will Oldham's new album Beware, released under his country music name, Bonnie Prince Billy, offers lovely music with a tinge of "lonesome-cowboy pokiness." Ken Tucker has a review.

The Los Angeles indie-rock collective mixes classic rock 'n' roll and '70s country, in the process attracting the attention of Neil Young's Vapor Records. Ghost Notes, the band's debut, combines bright pop tunes and songs with a darker, more progressive edge.