Runawaytrane

"Mary Jane Girls" is the eponymous debut album released by the girl group Mary Jane Girls on the Gordy record label on April 13, 1983. It peaked at number 56 on the Billboard 200 chart. The album was produced and written entirely by Rick James. Three singles were released and each enjoyed success on the Hot Black Singles charts: "Candy Man" (#23 R&B), "All Night Long" (#11 R&B), and "Boys" (#29 R&B). All three songs charted together on the Hot Dance Club Play chart, peaking at #8.

It's ironic that on Ramsey Lewis' Urban Knights II (GRP), the one holdover from the first Knights project is only featured half the time. Needless to say, that's the more riveting, jazzier half of this Maurice White-produced exercise in easy funk and potent, machine generated urban grooves. Lewis' slowly simmering, coolly rhythmic piano jaunts add flair to middle of the road silky pieces like "The Promise," but are best enjoyed on the two playful solo interludes which create an organic contrast to the slicker fare they complement. The pianist also adds an avant-garde edge to the heavily soundscaped "Brazilian Rain."

Brass Construction continued to avoid the scrap heap, turning out another better-than-expected album. There were two more good singles in "Walkin' the Line" and "We Can Work It Out," and the production, arrangements, instrumental support, and vocals were all more inspired than they had been in the past.

's 1983 albums, both released while the singer was with , are combined on this reissue from 's label. , a number six hit produced with , is one of her best albums. It contains two of her bigger hits: the upbeat pop-funk title track and the quiet storm favorite 's once again prominent on , which wasn't nearly as major. Although it reached number 20 on the chart, the material let her down. The most notable number is the ballad

Solid Ground is the sixth studio album by American saxophonist Ronnie Laws released in 1981 by Liberty Records. The album reached No. 17 on the Billboard Top Soul Albums chart.
Ronnie Laws is an award-winning tenor saxophonist and composer whose career has, since the early 1970s, straddled the worlds of jazz and R&B. Since 1975 he has placed seven albums in the Top 200 - including his 1975 Blue Note debut Pressure Sensitive - as well as tracks and albums in no less than six other categories. He has worked as an in-demand session man and live musician with a who's-who of jazz and R&B greats including Ramsey Lewis, Gregory Porter, B.B. King, George Duke, Quincy Jones, Stanley Jordan, and dozens more.

In the 1980s, the Washington, DC bandleader Chuck Brown pioneered the percussive, hypnotically swinging dance genre known as go-go, conducting marathon all-night dance sessions with a band whose energy and sheer musical power was legendary. Brown's 2007 We're About the Business finds the master more relaxed but no less funky, with insistent jams such as "Love Nationwide" and the vintage-sounding "We Come to Party" proving he still has a lien on the dancefloor.