Herbie Hancock isn't easy to pin down. From bebop to free jazz, fusion to jazz-rock, instrumental pop to hip-hop, funk to world fusion, an entire spectrum of musical forms has felt the Hancock hand. With an agile sense for diverse styles, he has continuously modulated his mood and his sonorous archit

Bright, Cool, Cool jazz, Fusion, Improvised, Lush, Pioneering, Rhythmic

Cornelius, a.k.a the Orangutan, and Keigo Oyamada, escapee from the Planet of the Apes, sports a prodigious musical appetite and thorough metabolism. He is The New Music Machine, playing all the instruments, singing, producing, sampling, and composing. In a sense, Cornelius is an embodiment of all th

Bright, Bubblicious, Citational, Pop, Smart, Smarty arty pop

Mouse on Mars spins symphonies of wet blips, bleeps, buzzes, and beats into disjointed ditties of electronic joy. Since the early '90s, the D'sseldorf duo of Jan St. Werner and Andi Toma has been composing a world within an electronic soundscape that is anything but cold. It's as if these two only fi

Abstract electronica, Bright, Bubblicious, Cartoonish, Kinetic, Pop, Smart

Charlie "Bird" Parker blew the sound of his soul through his alto and tenor sax, and for many musicians, hearing his music was like a religious conversion. He is immortalized as jazz music's "first existential hero," a blazing talent that burned out at age 35 from heroin, alcohol, and racism. The t

Bebop, Bright, Improvised, Loose, Overflowing, Pioneering