Stevie Wonder Flac Finale

"Uptown Special", the fourth album by producer-songwriter-musician Mark Ronson, is a tale of several cities, a wide range of collaborators, and a road trip deep into the American South. However the story of Ronson’s latest project really starts back when he was New York’s hottest DJ. Uptown Special has all of the flavor of a night with Mark rocking the ones and twos with funk, soul, and psychedelic pop in a style that echoes classic productions by Quincy Jones and Steely Dan, and funneled through its creators sophisticated understanding of arrangement and melody.

One of the most distinctive vocalists who arrived during the soul era, Deniece Williams is known for soaring, four-octave soprano voice, late-'70s and early-'80s R&B classics such as "Free" and "Silly," and the 1984 number one pop hit "Let's Hear It for the Boy." Born June Deniece Chandler in Gary, Indiana, she grew up singing in a Pentecostal church, which forbid the congregation to listen to anything but gospel music. Outside of wanting a 1959 Thunderbird, she had no serious ambitions but was deeply interested in music. Her favorite singers were Carmen McRae (for her diction) and Nancy Wilson, who, for Williams, exemplified class and elegance. However, her she also looked up to her parents, both of whom sang. From 1968 through 1970, Williams recorded a handful of singles for the Chicago-based Lock and Toddlin' Town labels as Deniece (or Denise) Chandler. None of them charted, but "I'm Walking Away" and "Mama, I Wish I Stayed Home" became Northern soul cult classics.

"Roberta Flack Featuring Donny Hathaway" is Roberta Flack's ninth album, released in 1980. It was intended as her second duets album with Donny Hathaway (following 1972's Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway), but Hathaway only recorded two songs with her ("You Are My Heaven" and "Back Together Again") before his suicide. Flack finished the rest of the record on her own.

Trombone Shortys' Blue Note-debut, "Parking Lot Symphony", captures the spirit and the essence of "The Big Easy", while redefining its sound. Blazing through 70s Funk, Rock, Hip-Hop and R&B, Parking Lot Symphony was produced by Chris Seefried (Andra Day, Fitz and The Tantrums) and features songs co-written by Aloe Blacc, and Alex Ebert (Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros).

The debut album from the foursome from Pennsylvania. It featured the ferocious single "Play That Funky Music." Robert Parissi's animated vocals were complemented by the soulful chimes of the guitar, a smokin' bassline, and some hyped backing vocals. It peaked on the Billboard R&B and pop charts at number one. They received rave reviews considering that the band was all white conveying such a funky message. (The arrangement and lyrical phrasing are very similar to that of Stevie Wonder's "You Haven't Done Nothing" found on his Fulfillingness' First Finale album that was released two years prior.) No other singles came from this album. However, there were funk jams and smokin' numbers including remakes of "No Where to Run" and "99 1/2." Still, nothing compares to the featured single.

Hartman's followup to Instant Replay, and while nothing here raced up the charts like that album's title single, the producer/singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist flashes his party energy through sturdy constructions. "Hands Down" trails off with Stevie Wonder and Edgar Winter trading fours on harmonica and sax respectively an inspired collaboration that could have run on a few minutes more. "Just for Fun," almost a one-man show, contrasts a muscular, syncopated hook to the insouciance of the lyric. The finale, "Free Ride," retools a hit Hartman originally wrote and sung for Edgar Winter, transferring the choogle of the older version's rhythm guitar to the rhythm section for a seemingly-simple discofication displaying the hand of a master crafsman.

Seven years have passed since Oldham-born, Nashville-based Karen Elson released critically acclaimed debut album "The Ghost Who Walks", a work that was notable less for its solid collection of murder ballads and blues jams than the person who produced it: the model and singer-songwriter’s then-husband Jack White. In the time since, the pair have undergone a not terribly amicable separation (though are reportedly now friends), and Elson’s musical tastes seem to have drifted away from White’s bluesy leanings and towards something more luscious and Laurel Canyon-esque. This set includes collaborations with Patrick Carney (The Black Keys), Father John Misty, Pat Sansone (Wilco), Benmont Tench (Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers), Laura Marling, Nate Wolcott, Paul Cartwright, and Dhani Harrison.