Old skool/new skool, from the root to the fruit. Start with a taste of The Dells and then sip some Cherrywine. Study up on Duke Ellington and Cootie Williams, and then make your way down front to bask in the glow of Mary J. Blige receiving the torch from Louis Armstrong, Nat King Cole and Billie Holiday. The spotlight is on vocal music—enjoy.

Roots reggae—from the beginnings with Burning Spear in Jamaica, to the future with Rocky Dawuni in Ghana, we give you a generous helping of the up-full sound of down-home reggae. And then we take a song from England, from the Beatles and do three interpretations: Bobby McFerrin and Dionne Farris (both recorded live), plus jazz vocalist Rene Marie turning it out. Additionally, we’ve got Nina Simone doing a Blackbird that she wrote, and doing it as only she can do it. Oh, what a week!

This week features artists, some of whom you may not know: jazz pianist Ahmad Jamal; New Orleans jazz vocalist Germaine Bazzle; Chicago-based, independent producer, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Peven Everett; vocalist/composer Phoebe Snow; and Zap Mama working with spoken word artist Michael Franti. It’s time to stretch our ears a little bit—let’s enjoy the unknown.

It ain’t over—Nina’s back! We kick it off with aural illustrations of classic Nina (click on the link for a breakdown: Nina Song). Then we go off to trip-hop land with Jaffa, Res and Handsome Boy Modeling School. We bring it on home with Bob & Marcia, Aretha Franklin and Donny Hathaway. And you know what, there’s enough Nina material left to do another week—but we’re not, so you better get to it while you can.