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Liane Hansen speaks with jazz composer and bandleader Carla Bley. Perhaps best know for her big- and VERY big-bands, she's pared down to a mid-sized group of eight top-notch players for her new cd, 4X4. (WATT records 012 159 547-2).

Bob Dylan's new album, Modern Times, hit the top of the record charts last week. Now 65, the singer-songwriter continues to explore blues and older pop styles with lyrics that frequently contain contemporary references.

Given the proliferation of year-end Top 10 lists, it seems natural that Shadow Classics — which gives shelter to under-appreciated music — would feature its own list of 2006 recordings likely to become Shadow Classics down the line. Don't let these gems go unnoticed.

For the fifth week in a row, Swift's The Tortured Poets Department was the best-selling album in the country. Post Malone and Wallen's "I Had Some Help" repeated as the top song.

Thanks to the inclusion of several gigantic hits like "WAP" and "Up" that had never appeared on an album, Cardi B's Am I the Drama? was guaranteed platinum status before it was even released.

On this week's All Songs Considered we share NPR Music listeners' picks for the top new artists from the first half of the year.

Bubbly pop songs sidle up to filthy headbangers and dreamy ambient in a six-hour playlist of unexpected holiday music.

Ramone worked with top artists to create some of the most unforgettable music of our era. He had been hospitalized in February with an aortic aneurysm.

Jazz percussionist Mongo Santamaria dies on Feb. 1 at 85. Santamaria scored a Top-10 hit with his version of Herbie Hancock's jazz-funk classic "Watermelon Man" in 1963. He also wrote the song "Afro Blue," later performed and made famous by John Coltrane. NPR's Elizabeth Blair has a remembrance.

The groundbreaking rock band Cream he will receive a 2006 Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award next week. Eric Clapton was the group's guitarist. To many in music, Eric Clapton is at or near the top of any list of the greatest guitar players in rock history.