Brazillian jazz singer Luciana Souza plays Jazz Standard Tuesday night. Download the track "Tim Tim Por Tim Tim"

Experimental electronic duo Matmos plays Le Poisson Rouge Monday night. Download the track "Teen Paranormal Romance."

William Harvey, the American conductor of the Afghan Youth Orchestra, and Milad Yousoufi, a pianist with the orchestra, discuss the Afghanistan National Institute of Music (ANIM) bringing its Afghan Youth Orchestra to the United States for the first time. The orchestra was started after the fall of the Taliban to rebuild the musical culture of Afghanistan. The orchestra provide a trade and skill for children (both boys and girls) to help get them off the streets of Kabul.

What music do you play when the weather outside is frightful? Soundcheck has you covered with a snow day mixtape to get you through the long weekend of being cooped up.

Last year, the Grammy Awards belonged to Adele. The young British star picked up six awards, including the trifecta of Album, Record and Song of the Year. But don't try to tell New York Times pop music critic Jon Caramanica that this was a progressive move for the Grammys. "[When] you think about who Adele is and what she represents -- what she represents is this incredibly classicist mode of songmaking," he says. "The Grammys get to look cool, but are really just reinforcing values that they've had for decades." 

We talk with Caramanica about this weekend's Grammys -- which will include performances by Justin Timberlake, Taylor Swift, and the multi-nominated Frank Ocean -- and ask him about his predictions for who will emerge victorious at the end of the night. 

Soundcheck's staff will be live-tweeting during the Grammys this weekend -- and, in keeping with the strict wardrobe guidelines issued by this year's awards, will be sporting our least sexy, least revealing jammies while doing it. Join us on Twitter -- just use #jammies.

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In the midst of the U.S. civil rights movement, pianist and composer Randy Weston found himself in Morocco, where he incorporated African musical forms and musicians in his recorded work. Weston returns to Piano Jazz with host Marian McPartland to perform "A Ballad for T.," "Little Niles" and "African Lady."

Four years ago, a group of 20-year-olds from South London who craft quiet, soulful electronic music suddenly made a huge noise. They called themselves The xx.

The Brian Lehrer Show kicks off its yearly series on Oscar nominated feature documentaries. Today: Brian talks with "Searching for Sugarman" director Malik Bendjelloul.

Post-punk shredders Screaming Females return to live performance at Music Hall of Williamsburg Saturday night. Download the track "Ugly."

Kickstarter is a crowd-funding site where creative people ask for money to complete projects. Creators state a funding goal, and come up with enticements for potential backers. If, and only if, the goal is reached, Kickstarter turns over the money and its involvement ends ...

Schoolhouse Rock taught millions of children about grammar, civics and math -- without many of them even realizing it. Hear from the man who wrote many of those catchy tunes -- Bob Dorough, who recently celebrated his 89^th birthday. He tells us the backstory to many of the program's most popular songs -- and, he performs "Three Is A Magic Number" and "Conjunction Junction" live in the studio.

 

In 1996, a group of popular bands were asked to participate in a tribute album called Schoolhouse Rock Rocks. We get the backstory on covers from Better Than Ezra, Man Or Astro-Man? and Skee-Lo.