Since the release of his debut album Water in 2010, vocalist and songwriter Gregory Porter has been a force to be reckoned with. His very personal blend of jazz, gospel, blues and soul has drawn in fans from around the globe, particularly with the release of his Grammy Award winning third album Liquid Spirit in 2013 and his hugely successful new album Take Me To The Alley…

Having contributed to reshaping soul music of the mid 1960s and early 1970s via other recording artists (notably Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell, Aretha Franklin, Diana Ross, Chaka Khan, The 5th Dimension), Nickolas Ashford & Valerie Simpson were a long established song-writing success before expanding on this as a recording duo in 1973. Following on from their surprisingly low-key Warner Bros. debut GIMME SOMETHING REAL, their sophomore release I WANNA BE SELFISH saw Ashford & Simpson reintegrating their trademark smooth, and joyous soul sound into the quieter moods of their debut.

Having contributed to reshaping soul music of the mid- 1960s to the early 1970s via other recording artists (notably Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell, Aretha Franklin, Diana Ross, Chaka Khan, The 5th Dimension), Nickolas Ashford & Valerie Simpson were a long established song-writing success before expanding on this as a recording duo in 1973. Valerie would release two wonderful records albeit to limited commercial success before the duo branched out together with their Warner Bros. debut GIMME SOMETHING REAL. Following on from the joyous pop formula they had perfected during their run of song-writing with Motown, GIMME SOMETHING REAL sees the duo progressing further with a quiet storm template that would partially set the standard for future releases.

The cover and inside booklet of Down to the Bone's second album shows a variety of rare-groove record stores (both inside and out), displaying racks of records by Weather Report, Lonnie Liston Smith and Donald Byrd. The music itself is a delicious update of those same sounds – yes, the grooves are tighter and have a bit of hip-hop bounce, but the soloing is far and away superior to most acid-jazz releases. Programmers and group frontmen Stuart Wade and Chris Morgans have the irresistible knack of translating their influences into an instantly familiar yet radically different style of music, and the results are uniformly excellent. Original Blue Note recording artist Reuben Wilson guests on Hammond organ for "Vinyl Junkie."

Blonde (sometimes stylized as blond) is the second studio album by American singer Frank Ocean. It was released on August 20, 2016. Initially known as Boys Don't Cry and teased for a July 2015 release, the album suffered several delays and was the subject of widespread media anticipation leading up to its release.

18 classic Henry Mancini tunes played by likes of Dizzy Gillespie, Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughan & More.

Optica was one of a number of musical projects by Jake Stephenson & Brian Trower, a well-known alias of this musical endeavour is Optic Eye. Optica was most active around 1994-1995.