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Randy Crawford	Every Kind Of Mood: Randy, Randi, Randee	Atlantic
Ronnie Laws	Portrait Of The Isley Brothers	Blue Note
George Howard	There's A Riot Going On	Blue Note
Four 80 East	The Album	Cargo/MCA
Keiko Matsui	Full Moon And The Shrine	Countdown
Sister Sledge	African Eyes	Fahrenheit
Kim Pensyl	Quiet Cafe	Fahrenheit
Spyro Gyra	Road Scholars	GRP
Pamela Williams	Eight Days Of Ecstacy	Heads Up
Brian Hughes	One 2 One	Higher Octave
Gregg Karukas	Blue Touch	i.e. Music
Lonnie Liston Smith	Transformation	Ichiban
Chris Standring	Velvet	Instinct Jazz
Brian Tarquin	Last Kiss Goodbye	Instinct Jazz 355
Paul Hardcastle	Cover To Cover	JVC/JMI
Down To The Bone	From Manhattan To Staten	Nu Groove
Jay Rowe	Jay Walking	Positive Music
Tom Braxton	Katallasso	Positive Music
Chuck Loeb	The Moon, The Stars and The Setting Sun	Shanachie
Philippe Saisse	Next Voyage	Verve Forecast
Pete Belasco	Get It Together	Verve Forecast
Art Porter	For Art's Sake	Verve Forecast
Marilyn Scott	Avenues Of Love	Warner Bros
Various Artists	Melrose Place Jazz	Windham Hill Jazz
Brian Bromberg	You Know That Feeling	Zebra

George Howard Dead at 41

GRP recording artist, George Howard has died after contracting lymphoma (colon cancer). He was 41 years old. Born in Philadelphia, George Howard initially established himself in the 1970s as a session saxophonist on the burgeoning Philly R&B scene and worked with such groups as Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes, First Choice and Blue Magic. He later outed with Grover Washington Jr. before locating to Atlanta and commencing his solo career which began in 1982 with his debut album "Asphalt Gardens" for the Palo Alto Jazz label. Switching to the TBA label in 1984, George recorded "Stepping Out" with guests Kenii Burke, Ndugu, Gwen Guthrie and Dean Grant. A further relocation to Los Angeles resulted in further album releases "Dancing In The Sun" (his breaktrough recording in 1985) and "Love Will Follow" featuring Siedah Garrett and four members of Maze in 1986. A further switch to MCA Records continued his recording career and included the albums "A Nice Place To Be" and "Personal" in 1989 which included "Fakin' The Feeling" featuring Syreeta. In 1991, he switched to GRP Records where he recorded 7 albums, his most recent being "Midnight Mood". A "Best Of/Anthology" was released on GRP in 1997. George is survived by sisters Mary and Doris and daughter, Jade.

Carlos Vega has died

It´s very sad to have to report the death of drummer Carlos Vega on Tuesday April 7th at his home in Los Angeles, an apparent suicide (according to The Boston Herald, from a single self-inflicted gunshot). Vega's highest-profile gig was as drummer for James Taylor over the past decade. While never achieving the high-profile recognition of a Jeff Porcaro or Simon Phillips, Vega was regarded as one of the best L.A. session players and played on hundreds of albums. He was a member of keyboardist David Garfield´s band Karizma on all four of their CD´s and appeared on a number of other Garfield-related releases as well such as Riding Bean, the L.A. Keyboard Project, Tribute To Jeff and his latest, I Am The Cat...Man. Additionally Carlos Vega played on numerous projects for GRP records in the 80ies and was a household name in the fusion scene.

Michael Hedges dies in car crash

Innovative new age guitarist Michael Hedges (1953 - 1997) died in a car crash on Thanksgiving weekend in Booneville, CA. Born in Sacramento, CA and raised in Oklahoma, Heges was discovered by Windham Hill founder and guitarist William Ackerman in 1981 and subsequently signed to his newly founded label. He helped forge the early reputation of the label and recorded seven albums for the label, helping to define the New Age image of Windham Hill in the 80s. He is survived by his mother, three siblings and two sons.