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One hundred years ago this past Friday, a bandleader named Polk Miller put together an unusual recording session. Miller — who was white — recorded seven songs with a black vocal quartet. But the man who led these sessions was no civil rights activist.

Every holiday season brings a new batch of seasonal pop music, some of it from unlikely or obscure sources. Rock critic Ken Tucker has listened to most of the new holiday collections released this year, and has chosen three albums that ought to make your season a bit more festive.

Jim Sullivan was always on the edge of success: He hung out with celebrities, but he wasn't famous himself. In 1975, he left for Nashville looking to further his career. But he never made it to Tennessee; Sullivan's car was found abandoned in the desert, and he was never seen again.

Metal superstar Robert Trujillo never spoke with the late Jaco Pastorius. But Trujillo is funding a film and a new compilation of demo recordings from his personal bass guitar hero.

Nearly 40 years after high school students in Oakland, Calif., campaigned to make Martin Luther King Jr. Day a holiday, students at the same school are taking inspiration from their predecessors.

Tony Allen was one of the founders of the deep-grooved Afrobeat style — alongside his musical collaborator, Fela Kuti. The drummer died Wednesday evening in Paris of a heart attack.

Some abortion rights advocates in the U.S. are seeking inspiration from their counterparts in Latin American countries where abortion access has expanded in recent years.

Russia's President Putin has turned the Soviet Union's costly victory over Nazi Germany into a substitute for a national ideology. A 75th anniversary parade planned for May is now set for Wednesday.

Thirty years after the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, Russian veterans of that disastrous war muse on their service and the U.S. as it contemplates its own pullout.

Jon Huntsman, the former ambassador to China who never connected with Republican primary voters, will withdraw Monday from the race for the presidential nomination, officials tell NPR. Huntsman is expected to endorse Mitt Romney, whom he believes is the best candidate to beat President Barack Obama in November.