David Byrne

After the head Talking Head declared his band closed for business, David Byrne became one of the few major figures of the new-wave era to successfully reinvent himself in a post-wave world. Admittedly, he had a head start — while the Heads were still peaking, he partnered with the band's producer, art-rock godhead Brian Eno, for the groundbreaking My Life In the Bush of Ghosts, mating "found" vocals, unprecedented sample/loop techniques, and frenetic funk grooves on earth-moving masterpieces like supernatural shimmy "The Jezebel Spirit." Post-Heads, he leaped headfirst into his love for world music, emerging with solo surprises like the salsa-slathered, montuno-mashing "Make Believe Mambo." Even Cole Porter's cowboy classic "Don't Fence Me In" bursts into Brazilian batucada beats in Byrne's globetrotting grip.

In Next Steps, Byrne bounces around from the Broadway stage to the China shop.

David Byrne is nothing if not a musician of many faces, sometimes even mixing and matching several at the same time. On "Ade," from his score for Twyla Tharp's avant-dance work The Catherine Wheel, he laced the loping Afro-funk he'd been exploring in Talking Heads tracks into loose-limbed instrumentals. Byrne traveled far from his Heads days on his theme for Bertolucci's epic The Last Emperor, though, taking his international journey one step further with elegant, uncluttered Chinese folk stylings. And after 27 years, he finally renewed his world-shaking collaboration with Brian Eno for an album of songs he termed "electronic gospel," with the sleek synths and spiritual lift of "Home," suggesting that the description was only slightly tongue-in-cheek.

In Deep Cuts, follow Byrne as he goes bopping around N.Y.C. playing with his pals.

His followers — especially his fellow New Yorkers — know that David Byrne is as much a fan as a performer, constantly popping up at other artists' concerts, and consistently keeping up with the cutting edge. You'll find him happily ensconced in the mix of the Brazilian Girls' global get-down, providing an existential almost-rap on "I'm Losing Myself." And who's the decidedly American-sounding singer at the center of the action on Brazilian expats Forro In the Dark's version of North Brazilian forro standard "Asa Branca"? You guessed it. But the funk-loving Byrne never bypasses an opportunity to get his groove on — his quirky croon is the icing atop "How Does the Brain Wave?," from P-Funk keyboardist Bernie Worrell and hip-hop mixmaster Prince Paul's firmly Funkadelic-sounding Baby Elephant project.

Few people have quite so gleefully disproven F. Scott Fitzgerald's famous statement about there being "no second acts in American lives" as has David Byrne. After redefining the notion of what rock music could mean with the Talking Heads, he'd have been fully forgiven for resting on his laurels, but Byrne's searching musical spirit is far too restless for even a moment's inactivity. An endlessly itinerant artist, he has absorbed the sounds of Africa, Brazil, Cuba, and more, into his swirling global gumbo; worked with everyone from country/folk balladeer Rosanne Cash to cutting-edge indie-rockers Dirty Projectors; and composed for dance, theater, and film. Hey, you know you've achieved icon status when you're asked to appear as yourself on The Simpsons. So where do you begin diving into Byrne's dizzying display of musical multiplicity? Funny you should ask . . .