We close out ’05 with Amon "Cujo" Tobin and Digable Planets interpreting the music of Lonnie Liston Smith. We visit with Yusa to enjoy new Cuban music. And we conclude with Marvin Gaye and Aretha Franklin. Happy holidays (Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa) to all of our readers and here’s hoping for a better new year. A special shout out to New Orleans, wherever you are!

Sometimes deja vu is just unconscious memory—Jorge Ben, Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso, their melodies have been used and re-used in pop music. Verna Francis is a new sound out of merry old England. And we conclude with two masters—Lonnie Liston Smith and Pharoah Sanders: one gave us smooth sounds, the other saxes on fire—plus a hip hop remix by Boozoo Bajou. Guaranteed, at least one of these selections will have you humming it, long, long after you’ve forgotten where you heard it or who it was.

This week we go from the spiritually sublime with Duke Ellington and Mahalia Jackson, to the sexually sublime with Luther, Jazzhole feat. Kaissa Doumbe and Bette Midler, and finally to a diverse collection of jazz instrumentals featuring France’s Erik Truffaz, Philly’s DJ Jazzy Jeff, fusion jazz guitarist John Scofield, young trumpet master Wallace Roney, the eternal enfant terrible Cecil Taylor, and East St. Louis’ favorite son, Miles Davis. What do you see when you hear a mix like this?

MC Lyte, the first female rapper to drop a gold LP, kicks off this week’s proceedings, including a duet with Bob Marley and a reference to Millie Jackson. 50 Cents follows, both po’ 50 and rich 50—with two very different versions of his love song. Jazz vocalist Patrice Williamson, hip hop songstress Caron Wheeler, and house dance hall diva Salome de Bahia, each give us stirring renditions of Stevie Wonder, who concludes the program with a live track.