Highlights!
Deatails forthcoming !!

Showcase CD
Pillow Talk - Pieces of a Dream:
Founding members James Lloyd and Curtis Harmon began playing together as teens in The Classic Touch. They later adopted Pieces of a Dream as their band name, based on a Stanley Turrentine tune that was part of their repertoire. One day, Grover Washington Jr spotted them while they were practicing one of Grover's tracks. Washington enjoyed their playing. He joined them on Mister Magic, one of his own signature selections, and shortly after announced he wanted Pieces of a Dream as the first act for his new production company. In the course of events, Washington became their mentor producing their first three albums. The recordings not only helped establish the Lloyd and Harmon as bona fide artists, but also helped define the emerging sound of smooth jazz. A few years ago, the pair were singed to the Heads Up record label. The move provided a fresh direction for their sound and breathed new life into their music; the result being what is now 4 albums that contain some of their finest work to date. Suffice it to say, their new one entitled Pillow Talk is no exception and it's indeed with pleasure that we place Pieces of a Dream and Pillow Talk in our spotlight.

Details forthcoming.

As usual we have a three tasty selections representing what we feel are some of the album's finest moments and plan on sharing those with you, I think you're gonna love'em all. So to begin, we're featuring a Curtis Harmon written track titled Sincere featuring the sax of Greg Riley!!!

CD: Pillow Talk
Label: Heads Up
Site: Pieces of a Dream ; Pieces/Heads Up

Preview of Coming Attractions - Paul Jackson Jr. : The Los Angeles guitarist attended the University of Southern California. He majored in music and following graduation, he became established as a first call session player. Over the years, Jackson's played with everyone from The Temptations and Luther Vandross to Ramsey Lewis and The Pointer Sisters. In the late 80s, he also launched a solo career and although these releases have been a bit sporadic, he's steadily developed as a front man, all this culminating in 2003's superb Still Small Voice which was one of the finer projects for the year. One of the efforts upon which Jackson showed a major leap in direction was his third album, 1993's A River In the Desert. From that excellent project, we have Preview of Coming Attractions highlighted by a cast of top-flight musicians and includes Gerald Albright, Bobby Lyle, Jeff Lorber, and Harvey Mason.!!

CD: A River in the Desert (1993)
Label: Atlantic Jazz
Site: Paul Jackson Jr.

Sham Time - Ronnie Laws: A native of Houston Texas, Ronnie Laws is the younger brother of renowned jazz flautist Hubert Laws and was the third of four sibling musicians. Ronnie was self-taught, picking up the alto sax at eleven. For a time he entertained aspirations of a career in baseball. However, a serious eye injury dashed his dreams, after which, the sax became his passion. Laws moved to LA in 1970 working with legendary talents such as The Jazz Crusaders and Hugh Masekela. He enjoyed a two-year stint with Earth Wind and Fire, before venturing on a solo career. Pressure Sensitive, his 1975 debut, provided one of the most popular sax driven hits of the era and became the longest selling album in the history of Blue Note records. Over the next 20 years or so Laws continued to record a variety of projects, primarily in the R&B vein; with the exception of his Tribute to the Legendary Eddie Harris, recorded in 1997 and an album grounded in straight ahead jazz. Many fans consider this one of Laws' finest overall efforts and from that release we have the fantastic Sham Time.!!

CD: Tribute to the Legendary Eddie Harris (1997)
Label: Blue Note
Site: Laws/Soul Walking

Cruzin' South - Chuck Loeb: A !!

CD: The Music Inside (1996)
Label: Shanachie
Site: Chuck Loeb

Riviera - Philippe Saisse: R !!

CD: Next Voyage (1997)
Label: Verve Forecast
Site: Philippe Saisse

Lake Shore Drive - Art Porter: That was of the most promising young sax players of the 90s, that was Art Porter Jr. Porter tragically perished when his boat capsized while on tour in a remote part of Thailand. He was only 35 and had just released Lay Your Hands on Me. From that effort which proved to be his final studio project, we had Lakeshore Drive. !!

CD: Lay Your Hands On Me (1996)
Label: Verve Forecast
Site: Art Porter

On this edition, Alex Bugnon steps into the spotlight on T&N. We've taken a track from each of the Bugnon's solo releases, making a total of nine selections in all and that follows the opening set and will be coming up in about 20 minutes. To take us thru, we have a nice set of tracks that are new to the show. This time out we're introducing Jack Prybylski and Gumbi Ortiz, meanwhile there's more from Ultrablue, Chris Standring, Nestor Torres and Nick Colionne as we explore their recent releases. David Benoit and Dan Siegel have new releases forthcoming and we have the advances from those. Included in our total of 11-brand-new-and-never-before-been-played-on-our-show tracks we have music from Phil Perry, and Bobby Lyle, so please stay with us for those as they're coming up just a bit later in the show. Right now, though we have the new one from Peter White. From his new one called Playin Favourites due to be released in a few weeks, here's What Does It Take, launching the great grooves of AH !!