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Unabashedly cheerful, Bulat's "In the Night" is a perfect slab of shimmering girl-group pop, but it's no mere throwback gimmick. A young singer-songwriter from Toronto, Bulat invests the track with graceful effervescence and an innate understanding of momentum.

Fresh Air jazz critic Kevin Whitehead reviews Present Tense, the new album by saxophonist James Carter. On tenor, baritone and soprano sax, Carter touches on influences as diverse as vaudeville and hip-hop.

Though still only 20, English singer-songwriter Kate Nash has already topped numerous European pop charts and attracted massive buzz in the U.S. Her debut album, Made of Bricks, is full of sweetly infectious pop music, propelled by Nash's thick accent and effervescent personality.

Cuadrado is a member of the Brooklyn Jazz Underground, a musicians' collective determined to make the pieces of a fragmented industry fit together. In an interview and performance from WBGO, Cuadrado and his Puzzles Quartet play music from a new independent release.

The jagged pop and reverb-drenched rock of British Sea Power has earned the English band comparisons to the likes of the Cure and Joy Division. But British Sea Power has a style of its own — playful and profound, and marked by unmistakable instrumental skill. Hear the band perform a concert from WXPN and World Cafe Live in Philadelphia.

Langhorne Slim and his band The War Eagles mix folk and blues with reckless punk-rock energy. Now touring with a new self-titled album, the singer-songwriter performs and discusses his love for playing live.

Few jazz arrangers can deter schmaltz when putting strings to swing. And even fewer possess Iversen's sense for dulcet harmonies and exquisitely developed form — the patient listener is rewarded with a probing, big-R Romantic, strings-only cadenza at the end of "West."

Fresh Air rock critic Ken Tucker reviews two albums from two one-named singers: Madonna's Hard Candy and the self-titled release from Swedish pop singer Robyn.

In a session from KPLU, blues guitarist Tab Benoit plays through a couple songs all by his lonesome, yet manages to conjure an entire band all his own. Benoit also talks about creating "Voice of the Wetlands," a group that raises awareness about the importance of Louisiana's natural resources.

Two years ago, acclaimed guitarist Kaki King announced that she would tour with a full band. For an artist who made her name as a solo instrumentalist, it marked her move into pop territory. King plays two new songs from her album Dreaming of Revenge in a session with host David Dye.