Bill Withers

While there can be no doubt that the late great Grover Washington, Jr. released his most commercially successful recordings for Columbia and Elektra, there is also no doubt that, critically and creatively, Washington's most visionary material, the stuff that virtually created the template for the smooth jazz generations that came after, were on the Kudu imprint and produced by Creed Taylor. Washington was a monster saxophonist on tenor as well as soprano, and a true stylist. Before coming to Motown and Kudu he had apprenticed with a number of soul-jazz masters, including Charles Earland and Johnny "Hammond" Smith. The material here focuses on the seminal eight years Washington recorded for Motown and Kudu, beginning with his early renditions of standards like "I Loves You, Porgy," from George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess…

It has been 40 years since the release of Boz Scaggs "Silk Degrees", which is said to be the original AOR! It is a 3-disc set that can be said to be the decisive board of the AOR compilation, and the song selection and supervision is by Mr. Toshikazu Kanazawa, a leading expert in AOR criticism. It covers everything from AOR classics such as Boz Scaggs, TOTO, and AirPlay to maniac songs unique to this compilation.

If you were wondering when Mick’s fans would finally show up again to buy some of his solo work, wonder no more. He gave them a good reason to buy this album as he obviously learned much between 1988-92 about both himself, as well as his partnership with Keith. He was more comfortable with his own brand of music, and it shows. Among the artists along for the ride include Lenny Kravitz, Billy Preston, and Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Track two [Sweet Thing] gives us another taste of the previously released Sex Drive, with an additional groove sprinkled on for good measure. Don't Tear Me Up followed to give Jagger a strong 1-2 punch. He covers James Brown’s Think in this release, but intelligently does no attempt to imitate him. The cover design was a terrible mistake, as it was conceived during the 'heroin-chic' period of the early 1990's and does not translate well today.

Quincy Jones followed up Smackwater Jack and his supervision of Donny Hathaway's Come Back Charleston Blue soundtrack with this, a mixed bag that saw him inching a little closer toward the R&B-dominated approach that reached full stride on the following Body Heat and peaked commercially with The Dude. That said, the album's most notorious cut is The Streetbeater, better known as the Sanford & Son theme, a novelty for most but also one of the greasiest, grimiest instrumental fusions of jazz and funk ever laid down, while its second most noteworthy component is a drastic recasting of Summer in the City, as heard in the Pharcyde's Passin' Me By, where the frantic, bug-eyed energy of the Lovin' Spoonful original is turned into a magnetically lazy drift driven by Eddie Louis' organ, Dave Grusin's electric piano, and Valerie Simpson's voice. (Simpson gives the song a Summertime-like treatment.)