Gifted pianist Steve Kuhn has enjoyed a career revival since signing with Venus Records. Pavane For A Dead Princess - a daring jazz rendition of classical compositions - has become huge in Japan and is considered one of Kuhn's definitive works. Kuhn's soft and clever piano turns selections by Ravel, Chopin, Tchaikovsky and Faure into exciting jazz. The treatment is so effective that one might not realize at first that these were originally classical pieces.

One of the giants of British pop in the early '70s, Blue Mink was formed in fall 1969 by keyboard player Roger Coulam, around a nucleus of musicians based at London's Morgan Studios – bassist Herbie Flowers, guitarist Allan Parker, and drummer Barry Morgan were also involved. Having already recorded a number of backing tracks, Coulam then approached soul singer Madeline Bell and former David & Jonathan star Roger Greenaway as vocalists; Bell accepted, Greenaway declined but recommended his songwriting partner (and fellow David & Jonathan-er) Roger Cook in his stead.
With this lineup, Cook and Greenaway's "Melting Pot" was released as Blue Mink's debut single, a plea for multi-racial harmony that reached number three in the U.K. that November. An album of the same title was released in the new year, alongside the single "Good Morning Freedom"…

René Splinter is going to mesmerize us again with he unbelievable talent. Melodies that touch the heart and sequencing that takes us on a journey to faraway places, A joy for the ears.

Stevie Wonder is a much-beloved American icon and an indisputable genius not only of R&B but popular music in general. Blind virtually since birth, Wonder's heightened awareness of sound helped him create vibrant, colorful music teeming with life and ambition. Nearly everything he recorded bore the stamp of his sunny, joyous positivity; even when he addressed serious racial, social, and spiritual issues (which he did quite often in his prime), or sang about heartbreak and romantic uncertainty, an underlying sense of optimism and hope always seemed to emerge.

Amore is the eleventh studio album by Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli, released on 31 January 2006, for the Valentine's Day season. This album features a remake of Elvis Presley's "Can't Help Falling in Love"; "Because We Believe", the closing song of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, which Bocelli wrote and performed; "Somos Novios (It's Impossible), a duet with American pop singer Christina Aguilera; and his first recording of Bésame Mucho, which eventually became one of his signature songs. Amore debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 chart, which at the time was Bocelli's highest chart position in America yet. It went on to sell 1.66 million copies in the United States and was certified Platinum. Bocelli was the seventh best-selling artist of 2006, in the United States, and was also certified Gold and Platinum in several other counties.

In the '60s, R&B was a much larger market than jazz. While John Coltrane or Art Blakey could fill a small club like The Village Vanguard, James Brown and the Temptations were selling out large auditoriums - gone were the days when jazz was very much a part of popular culture and Benny Goodman's name was all over the pop charts. Soul's popularity wasn't lost on Verve, which is why some of Cal Tjader's '60s LPs had titles like Soul Sauce and El Sonido Nuevo: The New Soul Sound - Verve wanted the baby boomers who were buying Stax and Motown releases to notice Tjader as well. However, Soul Bird: Whiffenpoof isn't the R&B-drenched project that some might expect it to be. Tjader's vibes solos are soulful in that he plays with a lot of feeling, but he isn't trying to be Marvin Gaye. Produced by Creed Taylor in 1965, Soul Bird: Whiffenpoof is primarily an album of laid-back cool jazz that has strong Latin leanings - Latin as in Afro-Cuban…

A collection of later Donna Summer material, including such song as "On the Radio," "I Feel Love," and "Bad Girls." Although disco was beginning to peak, Summer was riding high, dominating the R&B and pop charts. In some ways, these songs were more varied than her pre-'77 cuts, because only "Love to Love You Baby," from her Oasis material, was a major hit.

Rockin' Every Night – Live in Japan is a live album recorded by Gary Moore at Tokyo Kōsei Nenkin Kaikan in 1983, during the Corridors of Power tour. Despite being released in Japan in 1983, it was not given a European release until 1986. The 2002 CD reissue included three live tracks recorded at the Marquee, London on 26 August 1982, originally from a bonus EP included with the first 25,000 vinyl copies of Moore's earlier album Corridors of Power. The song "Sunset", which had been a staple of Moore's live setlist since 1980 - despite not appearing in studio form until 1982, when it surfaced on Cozy Powell's Tilt album - is dedicated to the late Randy Rhoads, who had died several months prior. Keyboardist Don Airey had previously recorded and performed with Rhoads in Ozzy Osbourne's backing band during the Diary of a Madman tour.

In 2022, the Mars Volta ended a decade-long hiatus with a self-titled LP that moved them into a more tropical zone of soft rock, jazz, funk, and Latin. A year later, they offered up Que Dios Te Maldiga Mi Corazón, an acoustic re-imagining of that same album. Described by guitarist Omar Alfredo Rodríguez-López as their version of a folk record, the stripped-down arrangements lean more heavily on the El Paso band's Latin and Caribbean roots. Though unplugged, it is after all a Mars Volta album and therefore not without a progressive bent and plenty of experimental flourishes. Filling the gaps between the primary palette of nylon-stringed guitar, piano, and double bass are dark-toned pump organs, vibraphones, flutes, and all manner of clattering percussion, delivered with the eccentric flair on which the band has built its reputation…

The Lemon Pipers were somewhat of an anomaly in the 1960s bubblegum community because the group actually had creative aspirations. Unfortunately, their high-water mark came with their first single, the infectious "Green Tambourine" (written by the team of Paul Leka and Shelley Pinz), which hit the number one spot on the pop charts in 1968. The follow-up singles (also written by Leka and Pinz) "Rice Is Nice" and "Jelly Jungle" added in interesting orchestrated Baroque pop elements, but ultimately failed to attract much attention. This compilation from Camden Records includes the Lemon Pipers' only two albums, Green Tambourine and Jungle Marmalade, and is the most complete single-disc collection of the group available (the Lemon Pipers recorded 26 tracks in their short history, and 20 of them are here).