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As lead guitarist for the New York garage-rock band The Strokes, Hammond has tasted stardom. But after seven years in his band, Hammond just released a solo side project, and the result is an appealing rock disc that incorporates more of his own blues background.

Jack Logan's homemade 1994 debut Bulk attracted attention for its staggering number of songs: 42, arranged in nine LP-style "sides" on two CDs. It displayed a remarkably bold range of styles, from scruffy post-punk screamers to gentle country weepers.

In his latest CD, Trailercana, Antsy McClain and his Trailer Park Troubadours poke fun at the collection of strange characters he knew growing up in Kentucky trailer parks.

Porcupine Tree mixes the virtuoso musicianship of progressive rock with modern electronic and guitar effects. The title of its song "Sentimental" takes a sly jab, given its bleak surroundings on Fear of a Blank Planet, the band's saga of numbed-out teens of the future.

Everyone on earth seems to have recorded "Tea for Two," but the multilingual lounge act Pink Martini makes it clear that the cloying classic is a fantasy. Paired with angel-voiced Jimmy Scott, singer China Forbes invests the song with a delicate intimacy.

The new album 3 showcases Lafayette Gilchrist's maximalist jazz piano in a trio setting rather than with his seven-piece New Volcanoes band. Even in the more intimate arrangement, Gilchrist isn't afraid to make the box shout; this is jazz from artists influenced by everything from hip-hop to the D.C. area's distinctive go-go sound.

The alien harmonies and jagged rhythms of Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring signalled the birth of modern music in 1913. Conductor Marin Alsop says the rambunctious score still sounds fresh today.

In the world of Latin music, vibraphonist Cal Tjader commanded respect: He was considered one of the few Anglos who could hang with the heavyweights. Tjader recorded Latin jazz, bossa nova, salsa and boogaloo for more than three decades, and his titles are uniformly strong.

Keyboardist Page McConnell's life with the band Phish was non-stop for nearly 20 years. After the band broke up, in 2004, McConnell considered many options, including returning to school. But the lure of music was too strong. He's now released a new CD.

One of the most proficient musicians of his era, Bromberg appears on more than 100 studio albums as a sideman and guest performer. His widespread talents and strange mixture of folk, rock and bluegrass music led him to venture out on his own and record studio albums as a frontman.