BELIEVE me, it's just a matter of time before Glenn Jones breaks through and enters the proverbial winner's circle for life! I've been saying this for two years now and felt it was timely now that RCA has just released Glenn's third LP, entitled "Take It From Me".

IF THEY aren't already, pretty soon Akron, Ohio based Heat Records will become known as a company adept at turning out stunning ballads what with first the superb album from Frederick, then the fine just The Two Of Us single from Johnston Brown & Janice Dowlen and now a consistent follow-up to Ivy's debut LP in 1984 with "Ivy II".

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.

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".

  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.

As his official Geffen Records' bio states, "John White sings with the authority and control of some of R&B's finest vocalists ..." and after listening to the gentleman's debut LP, "Night People", it would be tough to disagree.

Maybe we're not in the mood for message records right now. Even so, "Crack Killed Applejack" is a powerfully persuasive insight into the tragedy of American basketball star Len Bias, who, after a distinguished high school record, becomes addicted to crack, thereby ruining his life. It eventually killed him.

ONE of the hottest albums of the moment is the debut set by Vision, entitled "Exposed". Cuts such as "Exposed", "Where Did Our Love Go" and "Private Passion" have been lighting up the dance floors all over the world through the Christmas/New Year party period.
Vision is actually two young men ? Brandon McLaughlin and Leni Law ? who call Atlanta home these days and who are signed to William Bell's Wilbe label.

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.

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.

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."   

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!