Alex Henderson

Jack McDuff

The Best of the Concord Years
 
Soul-jazz and hard bop suffered a tremendous loss on January 23, 2001, when Brother Jack McDuff died of heart failure in his adopted home of Minneapolis at the age of 74.

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Brian Trainor

“Tranquillo”
 
Camaraderie. Rapport. Communication. Interplay. Chemistry. These are things that have characterized many memorable jazz groups over the years.

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Thiago de Mello

"Another Feeling"
 
JSR Records President Arnaldo DeSouteiro, who is among Brazil’s most accomplished jazz and pop producers, exalts Thiago de Mello and Dexter Payne’s Another Feeling as “one of the best, most sophisticated and musically rewarding productions I ever made”—and considering the caliber of musicians DeSouteiro has worked with, that is high praise indeed.

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 Ramsey Lewis    Sun Goddess
 

When Ramsey Lewis recorded Sun Goddess for Columbia Records in 1974, reliving the 1960s wasthe last thing he wanted to do.

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Norman Connors  Dance of Magic/Dark of Light
 

Early in his career, Norman Connors was not an R&B-oriented artist who offered a little jazz on the side. He was a hardcore jazz drummer and an instrumentalist.

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Norman Connors   

Love from the Sun/Slewfoot
 

Born in Philadalphia on March 1, 1947, Connors grew up in a city that takes its jazz seriously.

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Norman Connors

Saturday Night Special

1975 marked an important turning point in the recording career of Norman Connors.

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                   Stanley Clarke   

"Time Exposure"


In the 1970s, Clarke’s ability to combine the influence of Sly & the Family Stone’s Larry Graham with the improvisatory language of jazz established him as a major innovator. Anyone who learns to play instrumental jazz-rock fusion on the electric bass is likely to cite Clarke and the late Jaco Pastorius as key influences. 

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Tom Browne

Rockin’ Radio [Expanded Edition]

When one thinks of the musical contributions that Jamaica, Queens and nearby Hollis made in the 1980s, names like Run-D.M.C. and LL Cool J immediately come to mind. The Jamaica/Hollis/St. Albans area was so important to the evolution of hip-hop (which was originally dominated by the South Bronx and Harlem) that for hip-hop historians, the phrase “Jamaica sound” will forever be linked to the MCs who came from that part of New York City’s Queens borough. But a few years before the rise of Run-D.M.C. and LL Cool J (Run-D.M.C.’s first single came in 1983, LL’s in 1984), there was a different Jamaica sound—one that was driven by musicians who played soul and funk but also had jazz credentials. 

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