Nubien Twist

Twist of Shadows is Xymox's third full-length album, released in 1989 on Wing Records (PolyGram) and produced by Peter Walsh (acclaimed producer of Simple Minds's New Gold Dream album). The album captured Billboard's 'Hot Shot Debut" honor and charted in the United States at #165 on the Billboard 200. Twist of Shadows launched several charting singles in the United States. In March 1989 "Obsession" shot up to #16 on Billboard's Alternative Songs chart. By June 1989 it had also reached #12 on Billboard's Hot Dance Club Songs (also known as Club Play Singles, and formerly known as Hot Dance Club Play). The second single, "Blind Hearts", reached #9 on the Dance Music/Club Play chart. The third single taken from the album, "Imagination" (with Anka Wolbert on lead vocals) reached #85 on Billboard Hot 100 and remains Xymox's biggest commercial success to date.

The Unauthorised Live Recordings … The Beatles - Twist And Shout - Live In Indianapolis, 3/9/64 & Philadelphia, 2/9/64.

Erik Söderlind is a young man in no particular hurry. Not yet 30, he plays jazz guitar with supreme assurance, and on his debut album Twist For Jimmy Smith, he has put together a lovely, leisurely paced, always swinging collection of standards and originals that deserves worldwide recognition. Of course, he's unlikely to get it. We live in a world obsessed with image, a world that all too often mistakes image for the real thing. Should Sweden's Söderlind be passed over, it's the world's loss. Here he teams up with two other extremely talented local musicians, organist Kjell Öhman and reed man Magnus Lindgren to make an album that brooks repeated listening. Söderlind plays in a line stemming from Charlie Christian and continuing through Wes Montgomery and George Benson—and that's George Benson when John Hammond billed him "The Most Exciting New Guitarist On The Jazz Scene Today." Before someone discovered he could sing, dressed him in glittery suits and stuck him on the cabaret circuit. Twist For Jimmy Smith provides a glimpse of what jazz was all about in those far off days; though this album is not about nostalgia. It's about the real thing, what Söderlind, on the sleeve calls "the joy of making music" and communicating that joy.

The debut release from the I.E. label (which is connected with Polygram) is an unusual multi-artist tribute to the music of Antonio Carlos Jobim. Some of his tunes are made funky (but in a melodic and tasteful way), while others become quiet (but still passionate) ballads. The treatments are all jazz-oriented, and there is plenty of solo space for the likes of guitarist Lee Ritenour (in one of his finest jazz efforts), pianists Dave Grusin and Alan Pasqua, altoist Eric Marienthal, bassist Christian McBride, and tenor saxophonist Ernie Watts. Plus, there are guest spots for Herbie Hancock (an excellent acoustic piano solo on "Stone Flower"), the sopranos of Art Porter (on "Dindi") and Steve Tavaglione, the Yellowjackets (who team up with Ritenour on "Mojave"), singer El DeBarge ("Dindi") and the vocal duo of Al Jarreau and Oleta Adams ("Waters of March" and a lightweight rendition of "The Girl from Ipanema").