Windham Hill A Winter's Solstice

Still, Spyro Gyra's music has more depth and kick than most of their brothers and sisters in the smooth or contemporary genre. Jay Beckenstein once again delivers some fine saxophone playing, Tom Schuman lays down nice keyboard textures, and guitarist Julio Fernandez enlivens several pieces with his tasty fretwork (and Benson-like scatting on "Sierra"). Got the Magic is full of accessible melodies and polished playing, adding up to a very enjoyable pop-jazz outing.

Chicago electric/acoustic keyboarist. Quite intriguing contemporary fusion, with Paul McCandless (reeds) and vocalist Bonnie Herman.

Latin, jazz, pop and rhythm and blues accents fuse this third album by guitarist/composer and arranger Ray Obeido. Contributions from a seasoned cast of players include Kenny Kirkland, Andy Narell, Louis Conte, Dave Garibaldi and many others. It's guitar playing that will give you a fresh outlook of what this instrument can do.

Like 1994's Forest, George Winston's 1999 album Plains is inspired by the subtle beauty of America's landscapes. Pieces like "Dubuque" and "Muliwai" evoke regions as diverse as Montana's fields and Hawaiian shores, but Winston's distinctive piano stylings unite the songs into a cohesive vision. Though his interpretation of Sammy Cahn's "Teach Me Tonight" is unremarkable, his cover of Sarah McLachlan's "Angel" and originals like "Cloudburst," "The Swan," "Rainsong," and the title track showcase Winston's unique ability to transform nature into expressive piano pieces.

With his first solo album in 1979 Andy Narell took the steelpan out of the steelband and brought it into the jazz band, and with every album and concert since, he has explored the possibilities and expanded the role of the pan in contemporary music.

Narell studied music at the University of California, Berkeley, and played piano with the University of California Jazz Ensembles under the direction of Dr. David W. Tucker. He was graduated in 1973. He has performed with the Caribbean Jazz Project, Montreux, Sakesho, and Bela Fleck and the Flecktones. He additionally composed and arranged music for Trinidad's national steelband competition Panorama. Narell also performed in South Africa in 1999 in front of a crowd of 80,000 people.