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High school math teacher Jake Scott teaches his students with the help of his hip-hop alias, 2 Pi. By rapping about equations and formulas, Scott helps students remember his lessons and forges a deeper connection with them.

Musician Femi Kuti talks about a few stand-out songs from his latest album, "Journey Through Life."

NPR's Renee Montagne reports on a group of six Thai elephants that have been honing their musical abilities. They just released their first CD. Hear a song from that CD entitled Temple Music. You can find out more at www.mulatta.org. (6:43-8:20)

The rapper known as Gangsta Boo died this week at age 43. Born Lola Mitchell, she was known as one of the South's premier crunk emcees and she got her start in the group Three 6 Mafia.

Talk to most longtime Columbians about what they like about the city and the cultural landscape is likely to come up. A wide range of performing acts come…

The jazz icon turns 85 on Dec. 6. He'll celebrate with a concert in London where he will be joined by the London Symphony. There are several recent collections of his work: The Dave Brubeck Collection, which reissues five of his classic out-of-print LPs, and Dave Brubeck: Time Signature: A Career Retrospective.

Oxford American magazine has released its 6th music issue, which includes a 23-track CD. The effort of collecting and compiling that many songs may seem like a strange choice for "the southern magazine of good writing," but editor Marc Smirnoff says it's actually quite natural. American music comes from the South, Smirnoff tells Steve as they highlight some of the tracks.

Storyteller Mitch Myers recounts the tale of Duke Ellington's performance at the Newport Jazz festival in 1956. It's a story of a journeyman saxophone player, Paul Gonsalves, and how his playing that night would become legend. (6:00) Music is from the CD Ellington at Newport on the Columbia Jazz label. The tune is called Diminuendo/Crescendo in Blue.

In our weekly series, Lost and Found Sound, a collaboration between NPR and independent producers, we learn about self-appointed disc-jockey Eric Byron.

Writer and designer Jennifer Sharpe collects musical oddities. This time, Sharpe shares some selections from an unusual genre she calls "kid funk," including 6-year-old Angela Simpson's 1970s rendition of Langston Hughes poetry.