Three CD set. The first things that come to mind when you think of Cuba? Cigars, colorful vintage cars... and sultry, sensual music. The three-album compilation The Sound of Cuba captures the spirit of authentic music from the island nation. The collection also features the iconic album Casa de la Trova - Santiago de Cuba's answer to Havana's Buena Vista Social Club! In 1999, Havana-born guitarist Manuel Barrueco made a tribute to his homeland with the album Cuba! Featuring such greats as Ernesto Lecuona, H�ctor Angulo, and Leo Brouwer, the release enjoys legendary status as a Cuban music classic. The child prodigy, pianist and bandleader Ernesto Lecuona, known as the 'South American Gershwin', created an oeuvre of more than 600 melodies, all infused with that irresistible Cuban flavor and rhythm. He takes center stage on the 1999 piano album Habanera, with Kathryn Stott interpreting his music. On this album the English pianist brings Lecuona, who died in 1963 and who had been long forgotten in the West, to a new public falling under the spell of his lively music. With music from the renowned Casa de la Trova, The Sound of Cuba box set brings the listener right to the heart of Cuban music. It was here in Santiago de Cuba with the Trova singers and guitarists that the country's vibrant music-making culture emerged. This became the root of many other Latin-American styles that spread all over the world.

GYPSY FLAMENCO

JAZZ KAMERATA

TANGO BAR / VARIOUS

This collection of poems by Sarah Webster Fabio and Deniake is an example of Fabio's affinity for combining poetry with music. In this blues-inspired album, Fabio and her children's band Don't Fight the Feeling pay tribute to John Coltrane, Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday and Duke Ellington while simultaneously building a positive collective identity for African Americans with poems like "Pride" and "Black Is."

Jericho-Jim Crow by Langston Hughes is a musical production that focuses on themes from the civil rights movement and features music significant to the same period. Performers include former cast members of the original Broadway production of Porgy and Bess as well as gospel singers who made a living touring and performing around the US. Together, the cast of Jericho-Jim Crow gives a powerful performance of passionate acting and stirring gospel singing.

Legendary contralto Marian Anderson repeatedly broke the race barrier in classical art music, most notably when she performed on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1939 after being refused a concert spot at Constitution Hall. But she also loved her cat. This is Snoopycat's story, written by Frida Sarsen-Bucky and narrated and sung by Anderson.

In this collection of prose and song, Langston Hughes narrates the history of the African-American people. Beginning with the struggles associated with slavery and punctuated with African chants and freedom songs sung by Brownie McGhee, Hilda Haynes and Leadbelly, Hughes imparts the glory and triumphs of African-Americans, which include the accomplishments of Booker T. Washington and George Washington Carver, the founding of the NAACP, the sporting legends Jackie Robinson and Joe Louis and the music of William Grant and Ella Fitzgerald.

Narrated by Langston Hughes, The Story of Jazz is a concise history of jazz beginning with Drums of the Yoruba, from Nigeria, and continuing to the post-WWII era of be-bop with Dizzy Gillespie's "Oopapada." Hughes delineates the various subcategories of this ever-evolving genre which includes the rag, New Orleans jazz, blues, Kansas City jazz and boogie-woogie piano, swing, be-bop, and progressive jazz. Well-chosen examples accompany each exploration of style.

A controversial (though influential) figure in African American history, Booker T. Washington's image is sanctified here as poet and author, Roy L. Hill, combines forces with Washington's daughter, Portia Washington-Pittman. Pittman reflects on her father's life and attempts to counteract the negative perceptions about her father with her own thoughtful understanding of Washington's disposition. The compilation includes a recording of a speech delivered by Booker T. Washington at the opening of the Atlanta Cotton States in 1895.

This is the extraordinary life of W.E.B. Dubois in his own words. The autobiographical account begins at age seventeen as DuBois left Massachusetts to attend Fisk University in 1885, and ends in the 1940s as DuBois describes his struggles with the NAACP. Each experience that DuBois shares is marked by his perception of the racial environment that encompassed it and he portrays how his identity and reactions were affected. A full transcription of DuBois' inspirational account, complete with photographs, is included in the liner notes.

This recording of Gil Noble's WABC-TV program, "Like It is" features an exclusive interview with Angela Davis done by her lawyer, Margaret Burnham, while she was jailed in NY and awaiting trial on the case of the Soledad Brothers in 1971. The interview was arranged by the leading black newspaper at the time, Mohammed Speaks, and the questions were drawn from a poll conducted on what the average Harlem resident would ask Davis if given the chance. To these questions Davis is unapologetic and unwavering in her beliefs a "... There is nothing, absolutely nothing which could deter me from continuing to fight with all my energies for the freedom of my people."

RELATED LESSON PLAN "Music of 'The Seventh Continent'"

In the mid-1940s, Elizabeth Cotten (1895-1987) chanced to meet composer Ruth Crawford Seeger at a department store. They began to talk, and Seeger soon hired Cotten to work in the Seeger household. It was here that Cotten became motivated to pick up the guitar again-it had been so long she had forgotten she knew how to play-and she began playing professionally in her early eighties. The material chosen for this recording includes songs and tunes from her childhood, such as "Praying Time Will Soon Be Over" and original compositions like "When I'm Gone." She accompanies herself on her guitar, strung in the usual right-handed way yet played left-handed, with the guitar upside down. This album showcases her unique style, described by Mike Seeger as "a synthesis of turn-of-the-century parlor music, blues, church songs, and a little ragtime." Liner notes include extensive selections from conversations between Cotton, Mike, and Alice Gerrard.

Willis James, former chairman of the Music Department at Spelman College, looks at how the complex musical and linguistic practices of west coast African cultures have been translated into the musical practices of African Americans. In this lecture performance, he covers spirituals, work songs, blues and jazz.

These eight songs are the fruit of Lead Belly's first visit to New York in 1935, but the record company's financial downfall prevented all but two-"Pigmeat" and "Black Snake Moan"-from reaching the market. This album reverses that misfortune of unavailability, and the notes provide vignettes of the bluesman's experiences.

SPIRIT OF THE EARTH

INTRODUCING THE SUSO / GLASS QUARTET

World-renowned tenor James Griffett-who also co-founded Pro Cantione Antiqua, one of England's most treasured a cappella groups-leads the way through 26 classic Irish songs and ballads. Belted out or softly sung, every song here is a beauty.

MUSICAL MONSTERS

Samba in Seattle is the first official release of legendary Brazilian guitarist Bola Sete's live recordings at the Penthouse in Seattle, WA (1966-68). Produced by Zev Feldman, and mastered from the original tape reels, this Deluxe 3 CD set includes a 40-page booklet with rare photos, an essay by music critic Greg Casseus, and words by guitar icon Carlos Santana, pianist/composer Lalo Schifrin, pianist/producer George Winston, and Sete's widow Anne Sete; plus a tribute by guitar great John Fahey.

After a 20 year hiatus, virtuoso guitarists Goran Ivanovic and Fareed Haque have joined forces again! A year of intensive touring and composing has produced INDOBALKAN, the duo's debut release on Delmark Records. Featuring rising star percussionist Juan Pastor and incorporating elements of jazz, classical, Indian and balkan music, the duo explore longer, more complex compositions and stunning technical challenges while retaining their love for beautiful melodies and sweet tones. Two of the most gifted guitarists performing today, their styles and backgrounds are vastly different but, as the Chicago Tribune wrote of them "when their two guitars play, cultural barriers melt away."

AT THE MOUNTAIN OF MADNESS: LIVE IN EUROPE

The Queen's Royal Pipers: Best of Scottish Pipes and Drums

Deluxe Edition includes the single, "Udhero Na," featuring Anoushka Shankar. On Arooj Aftab's breakthrough album, Vulture Prince, her remarkable voice is backed by a team of renowned musicians that transport listeners to worlds once known. Intimate compositions unveil mystical passage into Aftab's emotionally gripping, symphonic world - vast with colorful sounds that are transcendent of genre.