A few decades ago, when the release of a George Benson album was an event for either jazz guitar or R&B vocal enthusiasts, his projects indeed lived up to the album title he employs here. While this collection probably won't be an essential part of the Benson enthusiast's library, it's fun to see him trying to stay in the post-millennial urban groove hip with some of the younger generation's top songwriter/producers like Joshua Thompson (who's produced for O-Town, Aretha Franklin, and Babyface) and Joe. Those who wish he'd remember his prowess as a jazz guitarist have to content themselves with its general background capacity behind pleasant romantic vocal textures and easy grooving hip-hop shuffle grooves. Fortunately, Benson's in particularly fine voice, and most of the hooks are catchy from the get go…

J.J. Malone is a soulful vocalist, adept on both piano and guitar and equally convincing whether turning his hand to straight blues, rocking R&B, or funk-influenced material.
The backing on this CD is from a select group of musicians who have played with and know J.J. personally. Bobby Logan plays the tenor saxophone on five of the tunes adds a deep ambiance to his section work, as well as to his solos. Clarence Walker plays guitar, both rhythm and lead, and is real talent. Just listen to his solo on "Old Fashioned Blues," among other cuts, for an example of subtlety combined with power. Jeff Levine on piano and organ is from Brooklyn, New York, and is in demand for his fine touch on Blues and Rock styles alike. Jeff Henry is the bassist, and is considered one of the best on the West Coast Blues scene.

In his first album for Warner Bros., Vince Guaraldi serves up another delightful, though pitifully short (27 minutes) helping of his themes for the Peanuts TV specials. By this time, like several other pianists, Guaraldi was actively exploring the new sonic horizons offered by electronic keyboards, and so he superimposes layers of electric harpsichord on most of these tracks. Some of the old sardonic spontaneity goes over the side, replaced by an overloaded gee-whiz atmosphere that sometimes gets in the way of the quartet's willingness to swing. But the tunes are marvelous, and since so little of Guaraldi's vast Peanuts output was ever made available, every millisecond of these jazz waltzes, bossa novas and soulful ruminations on Charlie Brown's world becomes cherishable.

Pianist/composer Conrad Tao's third Warner Classics album, entitled American Rage, traces the roots of rebellion from the 1930s Harlan County labor disputes, through the trauma of 9/11, to the deep divisions of the present day. Bookended by two expansive works by Frederic Rzewski - Which Side Are You On?, based on Florence Reece’s 1931 protest song, and Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues, an industrial folk song that reflects the unjust factory working conditions - the album centres on Julia Wolfe's Compassion, written in the wake of 9/11, and Aaron Copland's elegiac Piano Sonata.

Andreas Romberg is now more than an insiders tip; he is a recognized composer situated on the interface between Classicism and Romanticism. Romberg was regarded as a celebrated violin virtuoso, concertmaster, and composer, and his stays in Paris, Vienna, Prague, and Italy spread his fame internationally. He met Ludwig van Beethoven, Joseph Haydn, and many other musical personalities of his times. A great deal of his oeuvre covering all sorts of different genres was forgotten, but this is slowly changing, primarily owing to the Arbeitsstelle Andreas Romberg at the University of Vechta, a research center that since 1993 has engaged in the systematic investigation of this composers works.

This program of Franz Xaver Richter (1709-89) is another in Matthias Bamert’s series of Mozart Contemporaries. These little-known late-18th Century musicians deserve more recognition. The London Mozart Players are a crack ensemble who readily follow Bamert’s outstanding leadership. The Chandos sound is among the best, and the notes are superb. Three of these five works are premiere recordings, which makes this all the more attractive.

Here is a 2-CD by Spanish progrock band Alameda featuring all the tracks from their four studio-albums, released between 1979 and 1983. If you are up to Spanish progressive rock, don't miss this excellent compilation, what an exciting encounter between progressive rock and flamenco, the ethnic music from Andalusia (the southern part of Spain). The 32 elaborate compositions sound very pleasant, melodic, harmonic and varied, from romantic and dreamy to bombastic symphonic rock or swinging jazzrock. The Spanish vocals are outstanding: powerful, emotional and that typical flamenco undertone (without the usual wailing expression), this man gives many tracks an extra dimension! Alameda plays very professional: a splendid, very fluent rhythm-section, tasteful keyboards (from soaring strings to swinging piano and sensational synthesizer flights) and often exciting guitar work…

Create (1994). Create is the second of the four collaborations between Namlook and Charles Uzzell-Edwards. It is one of those long, single-track Fax albums, conveniently indexed every five minutes or so. It starts out in a rather dark and sinister fashion, with a lot of rumbling and some extremely distorted voices just about audible in the background. It continues this way for the next fifteen minutes or so with various other clicks and static interference washing in and out of the of the left and right channels. By the time the fourth track rolls around the beginnings of some more atmospheric drones start to make themselves felt and we slowly drift off into deep space territory of the kind found on Shades of Orion 2. The transition is gradual with the darker voices slowly being overtaken by deeper and more atmospheric string sounds…

30 classic tracks on 2 CDs from the likes of Dizzy Gillespie, Roy Ayers, Gretchen Parlato, Flora Purim, Bobby Womack and Sabrina Malheiros.

James Taylor's seventh album and last new recording for Warner Bros. is notable for producing his biggest self-written hit in four years, "Shower the People" (number 22 pop, number one easy listening). Bobby Womack's "Woman's Gotta Have It" was the album's only cover, and elsewhere Taylor took on a surprisingly rough set of issues in his typically gentle style, including "A Junkie's Lament" and "Money Machine." There were also reflections on being a "Family Man" even if, due to his peripatetic touring life, "Daddy's All Gone." Guest stars included Art Garfunkel, who harmonized on "Captain Jim's Drunken Dream," and Stevie Wonder, who co-wrote and played harmonica on "Don't Be Sad 'Cause Your Sun Is Down." On the whole, a respectable effort for an artist who was evolving into more of a craftsman than a virtuoso.

Due to her youth (16 when she first hit Myspace, 17 when signed to an imprint of EMI, and 18 when her debut album came out), perky-cute looks and extremely British diction, singer/songwriter Laura Marling got a lot of comparisons to Lily Allen in her early buzz, but the quietly compelling Alas I Cannot Swim is not at all a frothy pop confection. A folk-tinged AAA pop record based on Marling's alluringly husky voice and graceful acoustic guitar, Alas I Cannot Swim would be more aptly compared to the likes of Feist, Keren Ann, or Regina Spektor. (In the album's press kit, Marling reveals her primary influence to be Bonnie "Prince" Billy, which also seems appropriate.) Although not to draw too forbidding a comparison, opening track and first single "Ghosts" is most strongly reminiscent of Joni Mitchell circa For the Roses, both in Marling's expressive vocal phrasing and the expert shifts in the arrangement between solo acoustic passages and full-band sections, not to mention an excellently deployed string section. That old-school '70s singer/songwriter vibe predominates throughout the album, in fact.

Complete your journey to the heart of smooth jazz. Following on from Pacific Cost Highway and Ocean Drive comes the final instalment in the jazzfm records Road trilogy. Featuring more smooth jazz favourites as featured in many of jazzfm’s daytime shows, including Fourplay, Brenda Russell, Kirk whalum, Al Jarreau, Paul Hardcastle and the very sought after and previously unreleased track Theme from Love Is Not Enough (Live Version) by David Sanborn.