Ivory Pianop

Leroy Burgess, Stuart Bascombe, and Russell Patterson were Black Ivory, an exceptional and occasionally brilliant soul group from Harlem that recorded throughout the '70s and returned sporadically during the decades following. The trio developed out of the late '60s as a group called the Mellow Souls and were eventually taken under the wing of Patrick Adams. Adams had been in a group called the Sparks, but he developed his skills as a songwriter, arranger, and producer with Black Ivory. Adams scraped together all the money he possibly could in order to have the group record their first single, "Don't Turn Around." Adams took the demo to several unimpressed labels before hitting Today Records.

The title says it all - this is an absolutely dreamlike collection of tunes, both funky and straight ahead, written and performed by a masterful ivory tickler. After an illustrious career as mostly a sideman and/or musical director for R&B biggies like Anita Baker and Al Jarreau, this release established Lyle as a solo star, and rightfully so. Lyle's R&B background is more than apparent on the best of these eight cuts like Baker's "Been So Long," the funky "Loco-motion," and the airplay winner "Tropical."

Pianist Monty Alexander's "Ivory And Steel" group combines together bop-based jazz with Jamaican calypsoes and West Indian rhythms. On this quite enjoyable set, Alexander utilizes both Othello and Len "Boogsie" Sharpe on steel drums, either Marshall Wood or Bernard Montgomery on bass, drummer Marvin "Smitty" Smith and the hand drums of Robert Thomas Jr. Alexander contributed four of the rhythmic originals which are joined by some Jamaican folk songs (including "Sly Mangoose"), Joni Mitchell's "Big Yellow Taxi" and a couple of obscurities. The accessible results are often memorable.

An underrated German band, whose only album is another excellent shot of symphonic rock plenty of changes and melodical richness, really complex and elaborated…