Beatles fans love to explain that the key to the successful partnership of John Lennon and Paul McCartney was their contrasting songwriting personalities – Lennon was the tongue in cheek sardonic wit, McCartney the earnest balladeer. On John Pizzarelli Meets the Beatles, a sharply conceived tribute which sets the duo's classics in a jazz trio with big-band arrangements, the singer/guitarist hits the mark more often when he's taking on the Lennon persona. He approaches "Cant' Buy Me Love," "When I'm 64," and "Get Back" with a playful wink, jumping off his speedy melody lines and the rising brass sections for extended improvisational tradeoffs with pianist Ray Kennedy, and adding colorful touches like scatting and even ad libbing his own lyrical verses based on the originals.

TOWER OF POWER 'Dinosaur Tracks' is -believe it or not- a complete, fully-loaded, totally groove-filled PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED STUDIO ALBUM from 1983. Soulful ballads. Up-tempo swingfests. And a couple disco-twinged dance numbers (remember this was the early 1980s now, wasn't it?). All with that unique trademarked sound of the mighty TOWER OF POWER horn section. While one of these tracks snuck out awhile back to be used on a European -then later US- release and another was later re-recorded for a live album, this is THE VERY FIRST TIME ANYWHERE this ENTIRE studio album, just as TOWER OF POWER originally intended it to be, has appeared anywhere on Earth.

Urban Soul Grooves - rare and slick. City Soul - move to the groove. Jazz 'n Dance - the mix with tricks. The coolest mixture around with some of the best kept secrets in the world of European new house swing bands. The soul is in the music and nobody's gonna stop it, if you care to listen. Dancing Fantasy, TeeKay, Quiet Force, George Bishop, Software, Terry Marshall, Frank Fisсher and more.

Saxophonist and composer John Klemmer was restlessly following some inner call in the late 1960s through the late '70s. Aside from his big-boned tenor sound and his trademark unique Echoplex on certain tunes, he was making music that crossed numerous jazz, pop, rock, soul, and Latin genres. 1978's Arabesque is a case in point. Co-produced by the saxophonist and Stephan Goldman, Klemmer used a pool of studio players on this date in addition to a small band. Drummer Lenny White and bassist Abe Laboriel made up his trio, while pianists Roger Kellaway, Pat Rebillot, and Victor Feldman alternately held down the piano chair. The most telling thing about this date is Klemmer's employment of some of the best Brazilian percussionists in the game in Airto Moreira and Alex Acuña…

Like the artist himself, the music on this brilliant album defies all categories, embracing Terry Callier's wide range of influences and experiences. Callier's musical kaleidoscope is filled with funk, rock, folk, jazz, and even classical influences. "Dancing Girl" opens the album with Charles Stepney's majestic orchestration. This opus is the album's pinnacle, moving with soft intensity toward soul-stirring crescendos. Songs like "What Color Is Love" and "Ho Tsing Mee (A Song of the Sun)," an elegant antiwar prayer of confusion, somehow avoid clichés or take them to another level. "You Goin' to Miss Your Candyman" was made popular by Urban Species when they sampled it on "Listen" in the early '90s, and not surprisingly, it sounds better in its original form…

Nelson Rangell has primarily played pop-jazz throughout his career, although he did a credible job playing some soulful alto with the straight-ahead GRP All-Star Big Band. The records he cut for GRP in the early '90s made him into a popular contemporary jazz attraction in the David Sanborn tradition.

West Side Stories is the twelfth studio album by a Grammy Award nominated composer, keyboardist and pioneer of the smooth jazz genre, Jeff Lorber.

When Ronnie Laws first started recording as a leader in 1975, one of the saxman's strongest allies was Wayne Henderson. That trombonist and founding member of the Crusaders (originally the Jazz Crusaders) was an expert when it came to combining the accessibility of soul and funk with the freedom of jazz, and his guidance proved to be a definite asset when he produced early Laws albums like Pressure Sensitive (1975) and Fever (1976). The popular Grover Washington, Jr. was a strong influence on Laws, whose appreciation of Mr. Magic asserts itself on everything from the funky "Let's Keep It Together" and the gritty "Captain Midnite" to Bobby Lyle's alluring "Night Breeze." This isn't to say that Laws was a Washington clone, or that he unaware of other soul-jazz saxmen like Eddie Harris and David "Fathead" Newman. Laws, in fact, was quite recognizable himself on both tenor and soprano.

Romance Language is very appropriate for Valentine's Day—the perfect background for a romantic evening. Tenor saxophonist Kirk Whalum has teamed up with his brother, vocalist Kevin Whalum, on this recreation of the classic John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman.

Something of a smooth jazz oriented answer to the label's 2003 straight-ahead compilation Jazz After Dark, this highly engaging two-disc set features oft-played radio hits that have helped define the genre's generally easy grooves and colorful melodies. For diehard fans, smooth jazz has always been as about much about lifestyle as music, and these tracks will no doubt remind them just why they became devotees. All the early classics (circa mid-'70s to mid-'80s) are here, from Kenny G.'s "Songbird" and Dave Grusin's "Mountain Dance" to George Benson's "Breezin'" and Grover Washington, Jr.'s "Just the Two of Us." These are supplemented by later hits like Boney James & Rick Braun's "Grazin' in the Grass" and Dave Koz's "You Make Me Smile." But it's not simply an objective survey of smoothness at its best. The collection also seems designed to promote artists in the Concord Jazz stable – David Benoit and Russ Freeman, the Rippingtons, the Braxton Brothers, Gato Barbieri, Eric Marienthal, and Cassandra Reed, among others.

Due largely to the inclusion of trumpeter Ron Haynes – a one-time Donald Byrd protege – the fourth entry by Ramsey Lewis' smooth jazz supergroup is reminiscent of Byrd's seminal 1970s recordings. While merely hinting at Byrd's proto-disco inventions, Urban Knights IV is nonetheless a modern update of the trumpeter's work with the Blackbyrds. Although this album is nowhere near as funky as, say, Electric Byrd, it does come off grittier than many albums by Urban Knights' contemporaries.

What you see is what you get, an excellent little compilation of the various faces of soul-jazz as presented by the Verve label with their amazing array of artists from Hugh Masekela to Willie Bobo and Herbie Mann on the one hand, and Dizzy Gillespie, Jon Hendricks (in an outstanding reading of Herbie Hancock's "Watermelon Man") the Heath Brothers, and Teddy Edwards on the other. The track list is wonderfully varied, too: there's a smoking version of Hancock's "Cantaloupe Island" by Masekela, a pair by Jimmy Smith, and a big band – a new entry by the acid jazz group the James Taylor Quartet, but they get it deep; and Wynton Kelly goes deep into soul and blues with "Escapade." Anyway you cut it, it comes out great.

George Howard was one of the most talented artist ever and he knew what we wanted. A Home Far Away is one his of best. From the first jam, Miracle, to You Can Make This Story Right and Renewal, this is classic George Howard. This is one of those rare CDs that is played from beginning to end.