Cathryn Grant

Grant Green's debut album, Grant's First Stand, still ranks as one of his greatest pure soul-jazz outings, a set of killer grooves laid down by a hard-swinging organ trio. For having such a small lineup - just organist Baby Face Willette and drummer Ben Dixon - the group cooks up quite a bit of power, really sinking its teeth into the storming up-tempo numbers, and swinging loose and easy on the ballads. The influence of the blues on both Green and Willette is strong and, while that's far and away the dominant flavor of the session, Green also displays his unique bop phrasing (learned by studying horn players' lines, rather than other guitarists) to fine effect on his high-octane opener, "Miss Ann's Tempo," and Willette's "Baby's Minor Lope"…

Grant Geissman really stepped up his game with the release of his previous CD Say That, and this excellent recording where his finely honed jazz sensibilities come fully to the forefront. There's nary a speck of commercial filler, as every track sports an authenticity and originality that belie the derivative music he had made a living on for years. This is a fine effort with little reason to spoil with wasted critique, as Geissman himself is on top of his game, and whether he's playing with his peer group or select all-stars, the music is at a high level from start to finish. While bop does prevail, contemporary and progressive neo-bop are heard without the predictable trappings, and Geissman changes up the band per track to keep things ever interesting in the best sense of the term.

Eddy Grant has often been categorized as a reggae singer, but reggae is only a part of what he's done. In fact, Grant's best known hit, "Electric Avenue," awasn't reggae at all. On this inspired and unpredictable CD, the British singer successfully embraces everything from reggae-pop ("Talk About You," "Welcome To La Tiger") to guitar-powered rock ("Wildcat," "I'm Not Alone Tonight") to country-rock ("Sweet On The Road"). With its haunting acoustic guitar, the title song has a Neil Young-ish appeal. But the album's best song of all is "Gimme Hope Jo'Anna," a indictment of South Africa's cruel apartheid system. Quite enjoyable, Barefoot Soldier was a welcome addition to Grant's catalog.

After the worldwide success of Killer on the Rampage, Eddy Grant took a three-year sabbatical to build his own studio. By the time he returned in 1987, the rest of the world had caught up, and wandered off down the road into the sterility of disco/synth-pop. Still, that doesn't explain why Grant felt obligated to follow suit. Of course, Born Tuff isn't "pure" club: "Melody of the Night" has a hint of Bruce Springsteen and the title track a touch of Bob Marley, while there's a soca flair here and Afro-beats there (most of the underlying rhythms are reggae-based). The problem was, Grant fell into the same trap as the rest of the synth scene, believing it possible to overcome the soul-lessness of the genre, and failing miserably.

Going for Broke is a 1984 album by Eddy Grant. Following the major success of the previous Killer on the Rampage, this album takes a similar approach but was not as successful. It featured the U.S. hit "Romancing the Stone", as well as the singles "Till I Can't Take Love No More" and "Boys in the Street". "Romancing the Stone" was intended for the 1984 feature film of the same name, in fact was announced by Casey Kasem on the 30 June 1984 edition of American Top 40 as the title song to the movie, but ultimately was not used, though clips from the film appeared in the song's music video, and the song is mentioned in the film's closing credits.