Touch

Samantha Karen "Sam" Fox is an English dance-pop singer, actress, and former glamour model. In 1983, at the age of 16, she began her modelling career on Page Three of The Sun, and went on to become a popular pin-up girl. In 1986, she launched her pop music career with her debut single "Touch Me (I Want Your Body)", which became a Number 1 hit in 17 countries. She has since sold over 30 million albums worldwide. Fox has also appeared in a number of films and reality television shows, and has occasionally worked as a television presenter. In 2012, Samantha Fox re-released her first album as 2-CD "Deluxe Edition" sets with unreleased bonus tracks and remixes of the singles from other albums.

In 1980, guitarist and composer Eric Gale came off the commercial success of 1979's Part of You (produced by Ralph MacDonald) and didn't do the obvious thing. Rather than make another record that swung for the smooth jazz fences, he made a darker, deeper, funkier, and bluesier album with legendary New Orleans producer Allen Toussaint. The sessions included the cream of the Crescent City's jazz-funk crop as well as mates Charlie Earland, Grover Washington, Jr., and Idris Muhammad, three of soul-jazz's greatest lights – with special guest Arthur Blythe on the Charlie Parker nugget "Au Privave" as a curve ball. Toussaint wrote four of the album's seven tracks, and they range from the murky blue soul-jazz of "You Got My Life in Your Hands" to the sweet, boudoir-perfect urban-styled title track.

The elegant funk pianist dresses up his elegant playing, catchy melodies and familiar funk leanings with rhythmic excursions to Latin America, Brazil and Africa. A sticker on the wrapping of the disc touts the pianist as one of the true pioneers of smooth jazz, but that tag oversimplifies his uniquely global approach.

Touch of Class was an American soul and R&B musical group from Philadelphia featuring four members: the brothers Gerald Jackson and Pete Jackson, as well as Herbert Brevard and Michael Hailstock. The band was active from the mid-1970s until mid-1980s recording for Midland International Records and affiliated RCA label and had a hit with their debut "I'm in Heaven" reaching #65 on Billboard Hot 100. It was also the title of their debut studio album. By 1979, Michael Hailstock had left to concentrate on songwriting and the band turned into a trio. Their second album, the self-titled Touch of Class included their version of "Turn the Beat Around", a song written by Gerald and Pete Jackson and recorded by Vicki Sue Robinson in 1976 that gained big recognition and a big hit for her. the song is considered a dance/disco classic. It was also re-recorded by Laura Branigan in 1990 and by Gloria Estefan in 1994.

Mixing laid-back melodies with go-for-broke jams with some of the greatest names in modern instrumental music, saxophonist Bill Evans lives in the middle ground between smooth jazz and what could easily be termed of as contemporary jazz fusion. On his Zebra Records debut, Touch, the distinction is based on each song's sense of adventure. "In Your Heart," for instance, is the kind of right in the pocket, sweet little slice of passion that radio drools over, made unique (as Evans does on all tunes) by switching off from the high tones of the soprano with the darker shades of tenor to better discuss the emotional complexities of love. Likewise there's the cool, urban-flavored "Remember," which features subtle vocal chanting floating off in the distance. But then there's the edgier side of Evans intertwining his soprano with Lew Soloff's staccato trumpet energy on the brisk blues of "Dixie Hop," and kicking up all sorts of dust on the last two tunes, "Back to the Walls" and the ten-minute "Country Mile."