IN WHAT could justifiably be called their third incarnation, perennial favourites Kool & The Gang have undergone a pretty major personnel change. With the departure of James "J.T" Taylor, the group have drafted in not one, but THREE lead vocalists. As Robert "Kool" Bell, Dennis "D.T." Thomas and one of the group's new additions, Gary Brown reveal, the veritable musical institution is now in transition.
"With three different vocalists, we can pursue three different musical directions," says D.T. "We had our first decade which was a lot of musical experimentation with a lot of emphasis on a more instrumental sound and then the second phase which featured J.T.'s vocals and now we're taking both those elements and putting them together for this new cycle."   

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.

AFTER a long hiatus and a label change, Steve Arrington is back in the land of the recorded living! The ex-front man for Slave marks his switch from Atlantic/Cotillion to Manhattan with what most critics feel is his best and, even more importantly, his most commercial effort yet "jam Packed".

It's not very often that a group hits the top spot on any chart with their first record but Levert (Sean and Gerald Levert and Marc Gordon) did just that last year with "(Pop, Pop, Pop) Goes My Mind" when the record, taken from their debut album entitled "Bloodline", became a black music No. 1. A little over a year later, with a solid stint on the road behind them, Levert are threatening to repeat their initial success with "Casanova", the insistent, hypnotic ditty produced by Reggie Calloway.

  IT WAS Friday the Thirteenth so it was logical to expect something would go wrong. But happily all was not lost because, after a period of total confusion. I did get to speak to a temptin' Temptation — Richard Street. And boy, was he heavy in cold! He'd been suffering for three days but had so far managed to keep it to himself — and this was despite have a flu shot before leaving America!
Anyhow, The Temptations are touring here, as if you needed me to tell you, and to coincide their new single "All I Want From You" has been released, taken from their super "Special" album. And I mean it is a super release, a pot pourri of music, with tracks appealing to all ages. Maybe not so much of The Temptations' sound though. Richard said this was largely due to the producers.
"We used different producers here and some were only in their twenties. That's the way the record company wanted us to go. The producers were fans of the group and maybe the result isn't exactly what people expected.

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

WHILE, as a family group, Mason have that fact in common with the likes of the Jacksons, Pointers and Isleys, they have one further common factor with the Wilson Brothers, a.k.a. the Gap Band. Both families hail from the unlikely city of Tulsa, Oklahoma.

JUST in case there are still people who have yet to hear the news Shirley Jones is back in the fast lane and moving up through the gears like Nigel Man sell on a good day! The former The Jones Girls who, with sisters Brenda and Valerie, endeared themselves to a generation via their unique mellifluous soulful vocals as showcased on such classic tracks as "You're Gonna Make Me Love Somebody Else" and "Nights Over Egypt" was reaping instantaneous rewards following the release of her debut solo album "Always In The Mood" and the initial offshoot single "Do You Get Enough Love".

The music we listen to is an ever-changing thing with shifts and moves that can be as logical as they are confusing, but there will always remain throughout the evolution certain constants ? things that will remain familiar and reassuring.

Grover Washington Jnr's music is one of those constants and for well over a decade the great saxophonist has been creating a sound that has transcended fads and fancies and remained simply ... Grover.
Grover is currently plying his music around a good proportion of his country's fifty-two States and it was the morning after one such date in Georgia that we caught up with the Buffalo, New York native to discuss a brand new album for a brand new label.

It's one of those times in Larry Blackmon's pretty long, fairly illustrious career when everything must seem to be happening so frustratingly slowly.

Last year saw his band Cameo consolidate ten years of powerful, consistent music with their biggest selling album to date, "Single Life" — not to mention their first hit singles in the U.K., "Single Life" and "She's Strange" — and it now seemed that, at last, Cameo were destined for true international recognition.

Gwen Guthrie, frustrated with the music industry in her native America has opted to find a new recording home here in the UK, with her single just released and album due to follow. B&S talks to the singer songwriter about her music and work with her local children's theatre group.

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.