I 'm a totally nutty person. I even laugh  at my own jokes" giggled one of our newest chart singers, Vesta Williams. The lady may wound oh-so-serious on record, but when it comes to interviews she's a different person entirely.

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.

 WHEN IT comes to making quality music, Angela Winbush is no slouch. As record buyers on both sides of the Atlantic discovered when the former member of the hit duo Rene & Angela released "Sharp", her first solo LP, in 1987, the lady's talent as a producer, songwriter and vocalist clearly put her in a class of her own.
Following the success of "Angel" (a No. 1 U.S. blackmusic hit) and subsequent singles such as "C'est Toi" and the super-soulful duet "Hello Beloved" (recorded with Ronald Isley of the legendary Isley Brothers, who is also Angela's personal manager), the St. Louis-born star has put her hit stamp on records by Sheena Easton, Stephanie Mills and The Isley Brothers.   

Location: Just outside a hotel room in the Holiday Inn at Swiss Cottage. Wanda, the very beautiful female member of Raze, opens the door and greets me with a warm and glowing smile. This is going to be interesting, methinks, "Oh we'll be out in two minutes."

"AFTER a series of near misses during his Arista years, 35-year-old {safm}Jeff  Lorber{/safm} has attained that elusive crossover hit first time out on Warner Brothers. "Facts Of Love" is the record and it not only provides Jeff with a slab of gold, it also welcomes two exciting new vocal talents to an unsuspecting world ? Karyn White and Michael Jeffries.

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!

The group name Slave has been with us a long time but not necessarily so the new personnel and the new direction. However, latest recruit Keith Nash explains why the 'new' Slave are ready to carry on the tradition.

 WHEN you go to the windows of hell and look in, you begin to see the ugly reality of pain. And if you're fortunate enough to escape that gravitional pull out of there and come back into reality, then you can begin to philosophize on'what is real and what is not real."It gives you the strength to persevere — to go ahead — and I was fortunate enough to be drafted by The Spinners right away and that, within itself, did not allow me to
Former Spinner, U.S. marine and man about music, G.C. Cameron reflects, remembers and considers future activities. Scott Taylor tunes in wallow in the pity and the sorrow many of my comrades did who had time on their hands.  

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".

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."   

  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.

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.