Ross Anderson

Ray Anderson, who turns 71 on October 16, can look back on a long and eventful career. Born and raised in Chicago, he was influenced at a young age by the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, AACM for short, with musicians such as Muhal Richard Abrams, Roscoe Mitchell and Amina Claudine Myers, but rock musicians such as James Brown, Sly Stone and Jimi Hendrix were just as important to him. The jazz audience got to know Anderson in the late seventies when he played in the bands of Anthony Braxton and Barry Altschul, and he even founded the funk band Slickaphonics where he combined his avant-garde influences with danceable, humorous and razor-sharp funk. Later he played in bands such as the trombone quartet Slideride, the Pocket Brass Band, the George Gruntz Concert Jazz Band, Charlie Haden's Liberation Music Orchestra and the Vienna Art Orchestra. He has worked with musicians as diverse as Erika Stucky, Henry Threadgill, John Scofield, and Dr. John. He differs from elegant co-musicians such as Jay Jay Johnson or Albert Mangelsdorff in his expressive, dirty and cheeky style. He explores all possibilities on his instrument from noises to the echoes of early jazz from New Orleans, most recently on his solo album "Marching On" from last year.

"Red Hot Rhythm and Blues" is a 1987 studio album by the American singer Diana Ross released via EMI and RCA labels. The album made the charts in the UK, Germany, the Netherlands and Austria, as well as reaching the Top 20 in Sweden and Norway. It was Ross's final album for RCA Records. It peaked at #73 on the "Billboard album chart in the US despite an Emmy nominated television special that was a ratings success. It sold around 125,000 copies in the USA. The album included "Dirty Looks" (US R&B #12, UK #49) written by Richard Scher & Lotti Golden, and the ballad "It's Hard for Me to Say", produced by Luther Vandross. It also included cover versions of several R&B classics, including The Bobbettes' "Mr. Lee" (UK #58), Jackie Ross' "Selfish One," Etta James' "Tell Mama", and The Drifters' "There Goes My Baby". A Shep Pettibone remix of "Shockwaves" was released as a single in the UK which peaked at #76.

Neil Campbell teams up with Carlo Bowry (Muffin Men/Wizards of Twiddly) and composer/producer Gordon Ross for a release featuring Philip Glass's composition Metamorphosis (beautifully re-arranged as a classical and electric guitar duet), and Steve Reich's Electric Counterpoint performed with multiple classical guitars and basses.

With over nine million copies sold worldwide, Diana remains the most successful solo release of Diana Ross' career, entirely written, performed and produced by Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards of Chic. The hit singles contained on Diana helped propel the album into the upper reaches of the charts, peaking at number two in the US and number 12 in the UK.

BJ The Chicago Kid is back with a new album titled 1123. The project is his third studio LP and first since 2016’s Grammy-nominated In My Mind.