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Chicha is a corn-derived liquor native to the South American Andes since ancient times. It's also a quirky style of pop music that developed in the Peruvian Amazon in the 1960s and '70s. All of that provides inspiration for Chicha Libre, which has just released its second album, Canibalismo.

Danilo Brito and his band brought their dextrous expression of choro music to the Tiny Desk, a long-established musical style that has its roots in the streets and backyards of Brito's native Brazil.

Tyler, The Creator performs three songs from his latest album Flower Boy -- and pulls off (at least) two Tiny Desk firsts in the process, while maturing beyond his class-clown image (mostly).

David Byrne says "context has a huge effect on creativity." He draws on his time with Talking Heads, as well as Bach, Gregorian chant, even birds—to show how spaces affect the music we write and play.

Pit Baumgartner — a.k.a. De Phazz — made his name constructing popular remixes of songs by famous jazz artists like Ella Fitzgerald. The German deejay's latest album is Tales of Trust.

For those who think all Cajun music sounds exactly the same, a new CD tries to dispel that pervasive and dangerous myth. Christine Balfa Plays the Triangle offers up nearly an hour of triangle solos, performed by a woman with an impeccable Cajun pedigree.

At the Tiny Desk, the pop trio preached the importance of joyful revolution.

Even if the world came to an end, there's still beauty and hope in all of us and in song. That about sums up the wistful mystery that is the music of Darlingside.

Chris Harbaugh, a mail carrier from Chantilly, Va, shares his favorite tunes with NPR's Steve Inskeep. Harbaugh prefers good songwriting -- less focus on guitar solos or bare navels, and more emphasis on the lyrics and the mood of the music itself.

Musician, producer, arranger, composer Quincy Jones has a new autobiography, Q: The Autobiography of Quincy Jones, (Doubleday) and a 4-CD boxset collecting his work, Q: The Musical Biography of Quincy Jones (Rhino). In his fifty year career hes worked with just about anyone who is anybody in the music business. As a teenager he played backup for Billie Holiday, along with his 16 year old friend, Ray Charles. At 18 he began playing the trumpet in Lionel Hamptons band beside Clifford Brown. He went on to work with Count Basie, Frank Sinatra, Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughn, Lesley Gore and many others. He wrote the theme songs for the TV shows Sanford & Sons, and Ironside, and music for the films In Cold Blood, For the Love of Ivy, and The Pawnbroker. His biggest commercial success was producing and arranging Michael Jacksons 1982 hit album Thriller.