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Recorded in 1977, Weather Report's Heavy Weather successfully integrates several genres of music. The track "Palladium," for example, combines acoustic and electronic jazz with Afro-Cuban Santeria rhythm. Don't miss the jazz standard, "Birdland."

In the Harlem "rent party" tradition, jazz artists would compete on piano in an apartment for listeners who paid a quarter each to get in. According to many, Fats Waller could outdo all comers. Known for his comic touch, Waller also pioneered the use of the pipe organ in jazz.

The 1953 album Jazz at Massey Hall contains the only jazz composition sung by a United States president while in office. The song is "Salt Peanuts," performed by Jimmy Carter at the White House Jazz Festival. Jazz at Massey Hall also documents one of the rare moments when Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, Max Roach, and The Quintet recorded together.

Known as "Mr. Swing," Red Norvo became a jazz star while playing an unconventional instrument –- the jazz xylophone. He later switched to vibraphone, and recorded with such legends as Benny Goodman and Dizzy Gillespie. On The Savoy Sessions, Norvo teams with bassist Charles Mingus and guitarist Tal Farlow.

The L.A.-based Dakah Hip Hop Orchestra is breaking new musical ground and expanding audiences. The group presents hip-hop in symphonic form, with a wide variety of musicians from various segments of the Southern California music scene. Fawnee Evnochides reports.

Argentinian pianist Pablo Ziegler has spent his career experimenting with tango, fusing it with jazz and bebop. Ziegler's album Bajo Cero ("Below Zero") is considered by many to be a contender for a Grammy next year. Reese Erlich reports.

This week marks the centennial of the birth of Coleman Hawkins, the jazz saxophonist who helped define his instrument. A new recording compiles some of Coleman Hawkins' best work, and critic Jim Fusilli says it's a must-have for any fan of American music.

The musical quartet Devotchka uses upright bass, glockenspiel, tuba, accordian, trumpet and theramin in an exotic mix of South American rhythms, Eastern European gypsy melodies and North American folk music. Mikel Jollett of Filter magazine reviews the CD How It Ends.

When he was a child, music critic Tom Manoff heard the music of Edvard Grieg, particularly his piano concerto in A-minor. This piece of music is known as a workhorse. In pop music, it would be referred to as a "greatest hit." Tom Manoff talks about the status of the warhorse in classical music and we hear Grieg's piano concerto performed here by Leif Ove Andsnes.

Bebe Winans' new CD Dream, inspired by the Rev. Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream" speech, hits music stores on Tuesday. Ed Gordon talks to his friend about pursuing a movie career and writing inspirational music.