Mateo Kingman grew up in a small town deep in the Amazon. He didn't know the depth of his connection to the jungle until it moved to the city, where music helped him cope.

Last Friday night, The World's Marco Werman got a violin lesson in Tehran and learned what makes Iranian classical music scales different from Western music.

We remember one of the great singers of Afro-Cuban music. But he wasn't Cuban. "Melón" died on Monday in Mexico City at the age of 85.

Maurice White, founder of the band Earth, Wind & Fire, died Wednesday at the age of 74. The band blended soul, funk, jazz and a bit of everything else. White himself, though, was heavily influenced by the study of ancient Egypt.

People in countries fraught with violence and oppression may have a secret weapon that may temporarily relieve some of that suffering. His name is Yanni.

The Mexican cabaret performer Astrid Hadad describes herself in a variety of ways: Singer. Artist. Costume designer. Political provocateur. And she recently brought her act to New York City.

Record producer and DJ Michael Brun is from Port-au-Prince, but is now based in Miami. For his latest project, Brun wanted to go back to Haiti and record a song. He recorded the song with students at an arts institute and connected with a non-profit that helps raise money for the arts in Haiti.

Sainkho Namtchylak is one of a kind. You can even hear in her speaking voice that buzz, that resonance that allows her body to make the sounds we in the west generically call throat singing. On her recent album, she teamed up with a Touareg rock ensemble from Mali, Tinawaren.

Want to hear the sound of London's Millennium Bridge or the sound of metal workers in Kathmandu? You can do both on the sound map Aporee.

Joey Alexander plays jazz piano like an old timer, but he's just 11. Now, he's going to headline the Newport Jazz Festival this summer. He lives in New York. But he was born far removed from New York's swinging jazz scene — on the Indonesian island of Bali.