"joined up Thinking"

Produced with the involvement of Nile Rodgers and approval from the estate of partner Bernard Edwards, this box set remasters and recirculates Chic's first three albums and the contemporaneous We Are Family, in essence a Chic LP fronted by labelmates Sister Sledge. Another disc compiles edits and mixes of Chic-headlined singles of the same era. During this period, the band surfaced and instantly reigned in clubs and on the Billboard dance chart, and with "Le Freak" and "Good Times," took their slick and funky disco-soul hybrid to the top of the Hot 100. The recordings created everlasting aftershocks throughout commercial and underground music, consequently making guitarist Rodgers, bassist Edwards, drummer Tony Thompson, and a team of vocalists led by Alfa Anderson and Luci Martin (with invaluable assistance from Luther Vandross) unwitting instigators of rap, dance-pop, and house music.

Rob Hoeke, the father of guitarist Ruben Hoeke and drummer Eric Hoeke, is widely considered to be one of the best Boogie-Woogie & Blues piano players ever to come out of Europe. He started out in 1957, recorded over 20 albums, 35 singles and performed all over the world, right up to the day he died on November 6th, 1999. He was only 60 years old.

“Influences and Expressions,” a new album by the Arkansas Tech University Symphonic Wind Ensemble, was released by record label Tonsehen on Friday, Oct. 20. “Influences and Expressions” was recorded at Witherspoon Auditorium in November 2022 by Christian Amonson, former recording engineer for “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band. The project was made possible by the Pat and Roger Wattam Recording Series. The album includes “Slavdom” by Dr. Ksenija Komljenović, “DOPE” by Katahj Copley and “Song Book for Flute and Wind Ensemble” by David Maslanka.

Eclectic singer, songwriter, and social activist, the one-time Boomtown Rats leader became a progressive force in the 1980s. Great Songs of Indifference: The Anthology 1986-2001 brings together 4 solo albums: Deep in the Heart of Nowhere, the Vegetarians of Love, the Happy Club and Sex, Age and Death, with a wealth of bonus material, some previously unreleased.

On publication in 2009 John Hattie’s Visible Learning presented the biggest ever collection of research into what actually work in schools to improve children’s learning.

Cal Tjader was undoubtedly the most famous non-Latino leader of Latin jazz bands, an extraordinary distinction. From the 1950s until his death, he was practically the point man between the worlds of Latin jazz and mainstream bop; his light, rhythmic, joyous vibraphone manner could comfortably embrace both styles. His numerous recordings for Fantasy and Verve and long-standing presence in the San Francisco Bay Area eventually had a profound influence upon Carlos Santana, and thus Latin rock. He also played drums and bongos, the latter most notably on the George Shearing Quintet's puckishly titled "Rap Your Troubles in Drums," and would occasionally sit in on piano as well.