For decades, Cologne-based violinist Geoffry Wharton has played jazzy crowd-pleasing encores written in the 1930s by an obscure composer, Audrey Call. Wharton discovered a spooky connection with her.

When the violinist was just 17, a stunning Bach debut album launched her career. Over two decades later, she returns to finish up the set of pieces she started as a teenager.

A typical album from the Australian band The Necks may have only one long track — music that stretches out in a jazzy mesmerizing flow. Pianist Chris Abrahams talks about their latest, called Body.

Tony Bennett and Diana Krall share their love of George and Ira Gershwin with a new album, Love Is Here to Stay.

Former Guantanamo guard Steve Wood recently took a trip to Mauritania to visit Mohamedou Ould Slahi, the prisoner he watched for almost a year.

John Lennon and Paul McCartney have differing memories of who wrote the music for "In My Life." A mathematics professor has spent 10 years working with statistics to decide once and for all.

Virginia's Yasmin Williams is a captivating acoustic finger-style guitarist who incorporates cello bows and tap shoes into making her sound.

Brown University doctoral students Julian Saporiti and Erin Aoyama submitted an outstanding entry in this year's NPR Music Tiny Desk Contest. Together, they make up No-No Boy, the duo that presents the Asian-American experience through song.

Glenn Snoddy, who died May 21, invented the distinctive fuzz tone adopted by The Rolling Stones, Iron Butterfly, The Guess Who and more.

The Asheville band were the only ones of nearly 5,000 Tiny Desk Contest entrants to play in a convenience store. Lead vocalist Mike Martinez says that setting is more poignant than you might think.

One of the hardest-working drummers in the history of recorded music, Purdie has appeared on thousands of albums. He tells Lulu Garcia-Navarro that at least one of his iconic grooves was an accident.

Musician Quinn Christopherson shares the story of his original song submission for the 2018 Tiny Desk Contest.

Recorded live on stage at the Meyerhoff, Scott Simon joins BSO music director Marin Alsop and Leonard Bernstein's daughter Jamie for a conversation and musical celebration.

Wu Man is a master of the Chinese pipa, a lute-like instrument with a 2,000-year history. She stopped by NPR to talk about her fresh twist on ancient music and perform live.

Though she's known for her contributions to '90s indie rock, Hatfield goes back to one of her earliest musical inspirations for her new album of Olivia Newton-John covers.

Producer Jacob Plasse and vocalist José "Pepito" Gómez share how they recorded the band's debut in Havana's legendary Areito Studios and what their team-up symbolizes for Cuban-American relations.

The Mavericks frontman thought his Gibson was gone for good after it was submerged in the 2010 flood. But thanks to a local luthier, the beloved guitar has been restored, ready for more rock 'n' roll.

As the electronic duo Quindar, Wilco's Mikael Jorgensen and art historian James Merle Thomas make music out of the sounds of space missions from the Apollo and Skylab eras.

In 1982, NPR's Jazz Alive! recorded a big-band performance led by the inventive bassist at New York's Avery Fisher Hall. Engineer Paul Blakemore has remastered the tapes for a new album.

On his new album, Parking Lot Symphony, Troy Andrews keeps New Orleans' brass-band sound up-to-date. Thanks to a new generation of musicians, he says, "the future of the music is in good hands."