NPR Staff

Born in a moment of despair, as its creator was staring down hearing loss, Beethoven's Third Symphony is as odd as it is transcendent.

Milos, the one-named master of classical guitar, says the story of the instrument's 20th-century journey is told in the work of two Spanish composers.

The jazz pianist recovered from a coma in 2008 and was back on stage the next year. He hasn't slowed down since, and this month brings his latest album, a trio recording called Floating.

On the Arcade Fire member's solo classical debut, the body drives the beat — not the other way around.

The long-defunct Impulse Records is staking its future on pianist Henry Butler. The label relaunches this month, for a second time, with a collaboration between Butler and trumpeter Steven Bernstein.

"You could stop on a street corner and hear Malcolm X," the vibraphonist says of 1960s New York, where he made his controversial debut as a bandleader. His new Blue Note album is Enjoy The View.

Musicians and insiders talk to NPR about the jazz label's legacy. "It's just like the Empire State Building or the White House," says one. "It's a monument."

Learn how the 85-year-old composer got his start spoofing on John Cage, and hear his best impression of the coyote howl from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

Theo Croker is a descendant of old-school New Orleans jazz royalty, but his fusion of different genres is anything but traditional.

One of the most celebrated voices of her generation talks about her new autobiography, Stand Up Straight and Sing! The opera star journeyed from the segregated South to a divided Berlin and beyond.