Michael Lewis

One of his more memorable GRP dates of the 1990s, Dance of the Soul finds Ramsey Lewis playing mostly acoustic piano on a variety of material. The CD's main focus is accessible, yet creative, jazz-pop, though Lewis detours into gospel on "Mercy and Grace," classical on the acoustic solo piano piece "Cante Hondo (Deep Song)," and jazzy R&B on a remake of Teena Marie's 1981 gem "Portuguese Love" (which features the big-voiced singer Donica Henderson). The Chicagoan has some nice solos on melodic instrumentals like "Sub Dude," "Cancion," and the Joe Sample-ish "Love's Serenade," all of which demonstrate that commercial jazz-pop can be creative as well as highly accessible.

Busoni’s opera, Doktor Faust is unquestionably one of the experimental operatic masterpieces of the twentieth-century. The composer wrote his own libretto and worked on the composition for nearly two decades, although it remained unfinished on his death in 1924. Doktor Faust was completed the following year by Busoni’s pupil, Philipp Jarnach.

Before being signed to GRP and hitting it big in pop/jazz and crossover, pianist David Benoit recorded several albums for the tiny AVI label. Bluemoon in the early '90s reissued those sets on CD including this early date. Benoit, on piano, electric piano and synthesizer, performs seven of his originals along with a rhythm section that includes solos from guitarist Michael Miller plus a string section.

Toronto drummer and composer Larnell Lewis is set to release the follow-up to his Juno-nominated debut album In the Moment this month. The new release is called Relive the Moment, and it features reinterpretations of six of the original compositions from his first album with all-new live drum performances. It also includes one new track titled The Forgotten Ones, which is an emotional open solo that pays tribute to Lewis’s ancestral lineage.