Wired
Artist: Jeff Beck
Community Score: 9.00

Released in 1976, Jeff Beck's Wired contains some of the best jazz-rock fusion of the period. Wired is generally more muscular, albeit less-unique than its predecessor, Blow by Blow. Joining keyboardist Max Middleton, drummer Richard Bailey, and producer George Martin from the Blow by Blow sessions are drummer Narada Michael Walden, bassist... Read More

Undercover
Artist: Tim Weisberg

Taking a well deserved but admittedly commercially risky breather from his usual brand of smooth jazz, Weisberg's second Fahrenheit Records release, Undercover, chronicles his longtime musical partnership and friendship with pianist David Benoit, drawing upon their mutual love for jazz, pop and classical muses like Herbie Mann, Henry Mancini,... Read More

The Best of Tim Weisberg: Smile!
Artist: Tim Weisberg
Venusian Summer
Artist: Lenny White

One of the better entries to emerge from a genre that was quickly growing tired. Return to Forever drummer Lenny White, while not as powerful or talented as counterparts Billy Cobham or Alphonse Mouson, White had an excellent feel for Funk and an amazing sense of taste. "Chicken-Fried Steak" contains enough odd-time beats and fills to satisfy... Read More

The First Minute of a New Day
Artist: Gil Scott-Heron

This follow-up to the righteous and soulful Winter In America LP continues with the solid, decidedly left-of-center jazz-R&B that made him a cult figure throughout the '70s. This output, with the opening meditation of "Offering" and the right-on "Ain't No Such Thing as Superman," solidifies Heron's place in the pantheon of jazz poets. Dig the... Read More

Sea Level
Artist: Sea Level

The debut album contains most of their best material, bright guitar, and keyboard-based instrumentals. Chuck Leavell shines on five of his tunes. Jimmy Nalls plays sweet guitar. Their first and best album. Some vocals, nicely crafted on "Nothing Matters but the Fever." ~ Michael G. Nastos, All Music Guide Read More

From South Africa to South Carolina
Artist: Gil Scott-Heron

The Gil Scott-Heron/Brian Jackson collaboration was now a formal one, as they were issuing albums as a team. This was their second duo project to make the pop charts, and it included anti-nuclear and anti-apartheid themes, plus less political, more autobiographical/reflective material like "Summer of '42," "Beginnings (The First Minute Of A New... Read More

Robbie Krieger & Friends
Artist: Robbie Krieger
Night of the Living Dregs
Artist: The Dixie Dregs
Community Score: 8.50
One of a Kind
Artist: Bill Bruford
Community Score: 10.00

Bill Bruford ended his brief affair with U.K. and condensed his original outfit to a quartet, releasing a second album of sinewy, celebratory jazz/rock fusion, One of a Kind. Good-humored twists and turns abound in the music, punctuated by Bruford's steadying if slightly subversive rhythms, Allan Holdsworth's flashes of fire, Jeff Berlin's... Read More

Product
Artist: Brand X
Community Score: 10.00

Brand X's most eclectic album to date, Product is perhaps most notable for its attempts at a pop crossover in the Phil Collins-sung "Don't Make Waves" and "Soho." The range of styles presented here -- hard and soft fusion, pop, progressive rock -- results from the now-interchangeable nature of the Brand X lineup, which, in addition to the... Read More

Unorthodox Behaviour
Artist: Brand X
Community Score: 9.75

Phil Collins' seemingly endless well of energy afforded him two careers: one as the drummer/vocalist in Genesis, and a second as a prolific session musician. It was in this second scenario that Collins hooked up with Percy Jones, John Goodsall, and Robin Lumley during sessions for Brian Eno, Eddie Howell, and Jack Lancaster. The quartet soon... Read More

Memorabilia
Artist: Jimmy Stewart

This 1997 CD has some highlights from guitarist Jimmy Stewart's very occasional career as a leader of his own jazz-oriented sessions. Five of the 11 selections appeared on Stewart's long-out-of-print 1985-86 Black Hawk album The Touch, while the other numbers (from the same period) were previously unreleased; the exact recording dates are not... Read More