This week I saw a nice interview with Teddy Riley in a music magazine of 1992.  He talks about  Michael Jackson, Guy, {safm}Bobby Brown{/safm} and the keyboards, drum computers he used in various New Jack Swing productions. A nice interview to read. Especially if you like Teddy Riley.

 Mark

If you've been a funk lover for at least ten years, you will no doubt remember George and Louis as the two brothers who got you out on the dance floor with a string of hits for A&M that included "I'll Be Good To You", "Get The Funk Out My Face", "Ain't We Funkin' Now", "Stomp!" and "Light Up The Night".

IN THE music industry it seems that new forms of music are competiting against old. Take Hip Hop for example. R&B artists dis hip hoppers, jazz vocalists poke fun at rhymes and drum machines. Nobody seems to like each other .. .or do they?

One producer who has made the successful crossover from Hip Hop into R&B is Teddy Riley, a soft spoken young man in his early twenties who got his start producing rappers from B-Fats to Kool Moe Dee and Heavy D & the Boyz.  Riley suddenly became a household name by working on Keith Sweat's "I Want Her", followed by a hit by Johnny Kemp. It's hard to find a day when he's not in the studio planning future projects with Stephanie Mills, Billy Ocean and the Jacksons. Riley also sings and plays music in his own soul group, Guy, and has been utilising singer and songwriter Aaron Hall to write lyrics for the song Michael might be singing with his brothers.

FINDING out that Atlantic Starr? whose music has marked them as a real staple in anyone's black music diet for the past 9 years ? have only ever had one gold album came as a shock to me when keyboardists Jonathan Lewis revealed that very information during the course of our recent interview, held in conjunction with the forthcoming release of the group's Warner Brothers' debut, "All In The Name Of Love". You could, as they say, have knocked me down with a pennyfeather ? or some kind of feather!

Let's go back to October 1986 to see what's happening in the music business those days. These Liners are from a populair magazine from the UK.

  Lucky fellow Scott Preston interviewed Emilio Castillo from Tower of Power.

No matter who you are, where you live, or your taste in music, Tower of Power will find you. And once that happens, it's all over. You will come to believe not only that soul music is the salvation of us all, but that Tower of Power is one of those rare bands who can claim to be the real deal, 100 proof, aged-to-perfection, ground zero Soul. And the thing is, they're everywhere now.

Who's next?

Interview by Scott Preston  read more on  Cincy Groove

With "Love Or Physical", a splendid new album for Capitol Records, that perennial love duo Nick Ashford & Valerie Simpson are definitely back in gear. After a couple of years absence, during which time the couple (who have been married now for over fourteen years) gave birth to a daughter, Asia, Nick and Val are feeling great about their new product, especially since the first single, I'll Be There For You" is giving them one of their biggest U.S. hits in years.

"I Must Not Be Kinky" is the intriguing title of a new four track mini album from Tina Harris, a white R&B singer who has been working in and around the Los Angeles area for a few years. The mini album is released on Shanachie Records and includes one song produced by Lenny White and another two written by Bus Boys leader Kevin O'Neal.

You know, it's been fourteen years since "If Loving You Is Wrong" and something like nine years since we last had an album from Luther Ingram. And yet, after one listen to Luther's new album (rather unimaginatively tagged "Luther Ingram"), it's as if the crooner has never been away. But he has!

LEROY burgess latest return to public awareness is a double-headed affair ? first as co-writer, with his regular partner Sonny Davenport, on the new single from Intrique (he also wrote their 1985 debut, "Fly Girl") which is entitled "Together Forever" and released on the Cooltempo label while, secondly, he teams up with his two old buddies the Aleem brothers for their new album together on Atlantic entitled "Love Shock". Aleem aside for one moment ? something that is a bit too easily done on the new album for my liking ? the Intrique project is a classic example of how Leroy has used his wealth of experience and talent to keep his name buzzing around the R&B scene to good effect for such a long time.

THE timing certainly seems ripe for some changes in the Maze camp. It was obvious with the release of a second "live" album set that
everything was not A-OK with Frankie Beverly and his Maze cohorts.
However, let's first of all dispel the rumour that circulates the most when the names of Frankie and Maze are mentioned. No Beverly solo run!

Rick was a musical prodigy, producing records when he was 16 years old instead of going to school. He and Harry Wayne Casey (KC) worked at TK Records in Miami, where they joined forces to write and record five #1 hits as KC and the Sunshine Band. Two white guys with a black rhythm section, they shaped the sound of what would become known as Disco. Here's how it happened. Read the full interview on Songfacts.com