Italian pianist/composer Ludovico Einaudi was a star pupil at the Milan Conservatory in the early 1970s, well on the way to a standard career in classical music until he decided to start writing down and playing the "other" music he was hearing in his head. Today he is writing and recording what is perhaps Europe's most elegant and substantial "minimalist" music. You'll get some samples of it in this hour, along with some of the nuevo flamenco guitar of Ottmar Liebert and two of the classic reggae tunes of Bob Marley..

ft. Senegal's Mame Balla

It's a pretty incredible story: two young Mexican guitarists who started out playing thrash metal in their homeland left to settle in Ireland, and there made a name for themselves playing a distinctive brand of fast, highly rhythmic acoustic music inspired by classic rock and jazz fusion. Rodrigo & Gabriela light up the first hour of this week's program, as does another incredible virtuoso with a worldwide following, cellist Yo-Yo Ma. There's also a touch of Celtic music, a famous cinematic love theme, and two late 60's hits by a onetime protegee of Paul McCartney.

When Johnny Cash died in September 2003, the New York Times ran a page-one obituary with a headline referring to Cash as "Country Music Bedrock." In this hour of Nightmix, you'll hear two fine examples of what made the Man in Black so rock-solid for so long. Two other "bedrock" performers of their style of music, jazz, Wes Montgomery and Bill Evans, demonstrate their distinctive styles.

ft. Monique Seka w/ Okaman and Oliver Ngoma w/ Bane

Rhumba du Congo