How can we explain the incredible talent that rises clear as a bell off the scratchy old recordings of bluesman Robert Johnson? If we believe the legends, Johnson got his gift on a lonely Mississippi road when he met up with Beelzebub himself. The devil offered Johnson a musical genius that would tea

Expansive, Gritty, Overflowing, Religious, Saturated, Visceral

Nino Rota was one of the most prolific and acclaimed film composers of his era, and his 30-year collaboration with Fellini became one of the classic director-composer pairings. His soundtrack credits range from Fellini's "La Dolce Vita" to Franco Zeffirelli's "Romeo and Juliet" to Francis Ford Coppo

Classical, Expansive, Playful, Surreal

The Buena Vista Social Club is a band of musicians whose careers span the history of twentieth-century Cuban music, from 90-year-old vocalist Compay Segundo (whose career began in the 1920s), to pianist Ruben Gonzalez, vocalist Ibrahim Ferrar (who came to fame in the 1950s), and 13-year-old timbalist

Bright, Ebullient, Expansive, Intimate, Layered, Round, Salsa music

Just before his death in 1991, Miles Davis teamed up with rapper Easy Mo Bee to make a jazz/hip-hop album called "Doo Bop." This wasn't the first time Davis had done something utterly new -- his entire career was devoted to jazz-faring exploration. Playing with such supernovae as Charles Mingus

Bebop, Classical, Composed, Cool, Cool jazz, Electronic, Elegant, Expansive, Fusion, Fuzzy, Hard bop/post-bop, Improvised, Intimate, Loose, Lush, Mathematical, Minimal, Open-ended, Quiet, Sexy, Sincere, Spare, Subtle, Trippy