This week, Andre 3000 released an instrumental album featuring the flute instead of an expected rap album. Scott Simon asks LA Times' August Brown about the flute's decades-long role in pop music.

Bud Shank, 82, who brought Brazilian music to U.S. audiences, helped define "cool jazz" in the 1950s and played the dreamlike flute solo on the Mamas and the Papas' 1965 hit "California Dreamin ...