By Jose R. Rodriguez

The second album from the Brooklyn-based octet featured two releases: "High" and "Skyyzoo." The former is a moderately-paced groove showcasing the unison vocals of the Dunning sisters. Lightly arranged with an unruffled rhythm track and some guitar licks, the strings and horn complement this laid-back dance number. The single peaked at 13 after 16 weeks on the Billboard R&B charts. The follow-up, "Skyyzoo," was more of a antic-driven number. With its hyped vocals and various music gadgets, the song was an invitation to the dancefloor. It peaked at 32 on the charts after 11 weeks. The remainder of the album falls in line with these two singles save the ballad "Who's Gonna Love Me." and "Music. Music," which swings the way of rock with its heavy electric guitar and slashing vocals.

In the wake of the moribund condition of the fine Naxos Jazz label, Naxos World pick up the slack with an excellent Cubano jazz release by the famous Cuban expatriate Alfredo Rodriguez. Born in Havana in 1936, Rodriguez percolated in that musical melting pot, assimilating classical and jazz influences until 1960 when he moved to Manhattan where he stayed until he migrated to another Cuban–dense community, Miami, where he lived and worked until 1985. Rodriguez has resided in Paris since that time, where he has been a successful bandleader, arranger and composer. In the present recording, Rodriguez exposes the listener to different flavors of "Latin Jazz.".

On this, the largest set ever compiled of one of the last century's most popular composers, we may not only renew our familiarity with the Concierto de Aranjuez, or perhaps with one of the other ever-melodious guitar concertos that sustain his reputation with audiences, but also discover chamber, instrumental, choral and especially vocal works which testify to a creative imagination confident in the formation of its style but never satisfied with repetition, one which responded directly to poetic and lyric inspiration, and transformed its ideas with unfailing skill and respect for the idiom under consideration.

When War reunited in 1994 and recorded Peace Sign — their first album since 1983's Life (Is So Strange), the band's sound hadn't changed very much. Instead of going high-tech and trying to appeal to urban contemporary tastes, the influential Angelenos continued to offer the type of slow and relaxed yet gritty soul and funk they'd been playing 20 years earlier. The results is a decent album that's hardly in a class with All Day Music, The World Is a Ghetto or Why Can't We Be Friends?, but it has its moments.