2009 release from the award-winning guitarist, who draws upon a diverse background to form his unique style. A consummate player and an accomplished composer/arranger, with song placement on such mega-hit shows as Sex And The City and All About Us. Jay's debut album on Nu-Groove, Stay Awhile, rocked the Contemporary Jazz Charts for over a year. Soto returns in 2009 with his sophomore release, Mesmerized, produced by Darren Rahn and Grammy winner Michael Broening. Is this America's next rising young idol? The proof is in the music. Take a listen and you'll hear the sound that is indeed taking Contemporary Jazz radio by storm.

Georgia-born and Detroit-raised pianist T.J. Fowler led a series of smart, jazzy R&B bands in Detroit during the late '40s and throughout the 1950s. This fascinating Classics chronological compilation lines up all of Fowler's first recordings as a leader. It opens with a couple of mood pieces issued on the Paradise label. While "Sultry Moon" has a wistful charm similar to Earl Bostic's ballad style, Freddie Johnson's pidgin West Indian vocal only cheapens "Mango Blues," a counterfeit Caribbean lament in rhumba time. Fowler's subsequent recordings, originally issued on the National and Sensation labels, provided the spark that ignited his career and led to his tenure with Savoy Records in 1952 and 1953. Teamed with bassist Henry Ivory and drummer Clarence Stamp behind a smoky front line of trumpeter John Lawton and saxophonists Walter Cox and Lee Gross, Fowler presented hot music for dancing and the occasional slow grind. Aside from a couple of Billy Eckstine imitations committed by an unidentified crooner, the only voices heard on the National and Sensation sides are group vocals with handclapping over jump blues based in boogie-woogie and swing. Adding singer and blues guitarist Calvin Frazier to his lineup, Fowler made his first sides for Savoy in Detroit on March 28, 1952. While the singalong rockers like "Oo-La-La" and "Yes I Know" were designed and presented as crowd-pleasers, the ominous slow groove called "Night Crawler" and the broiling "Fowler's Boogie," issued back to back as Savoy 843, stand among Fowler's most enduring achievements from this time period, along with "Back Biter," "Wine Cooler," "Gold Rush," and "Camel Walk." With gutsy solos by guitarist Calvin Frazier and saxophonist Walter Cox, this is early Detroit R&B at its fundamental best. This portion of the T.J. Fowler story ends with three of the only recordings he ever made outside of the Motor City. Recorded in Chicago and issued on the States record label, these tracks feature the pianist in the company of trumpeter Dezie McCullers, alto saxophonist and singer Frank Taylor, home boy tenor Walter Cox, bassist Gene Taylor, and drummer Floyd "Bubbles" McVay, who switches to congas on the two groovin' instrumentals, "The Queen" and "Take Off." ~ arwulf arwulf

Tenor saxophonist Stan Getz found a perfect accompanist in pianist Kenny Barron, who would regularly play in his group for his last five years. This out-of-print Black Hawk LP finds the pair, along with bassist George Mraz and drummer Victor Lewis, performing two standards and four more recent pieces, including two ("Dreams" and "Voyage") by Barron. The music is difficult to classify (modern bop?) but relatively easy to understand; Getz never coasts. ~ Scott Yanow

Sacha Distel is probably more famous internationally as a singer, and even an actor, than he is as a jazz guitarist. It was as a guitarist, however, that he made his first mark on the entertainment world. This all-instrumental compilation is a document of those beginnings, gathering 14 tracks that he recorded between late 1955 and late 1956 in a variety of settings. Just five of them were credited to Distel; the remaining nine cuts include one with the Lionel Hampton Paris All-Stars, a couple with the Bobby Jaspar All Stars, and five as co-leader of the John Lewis-Sacha Distel Quintette. The mere fact that by his early twenties he was already playing with the likes of Hampton and Lewis is an indication of how highly regarded his talents on guitar were regarded by the jazz world. While there's no indication that the world lost a future Wes Montgomery after Distel switched his focus to pop vocals, these tracks alone are enough to establish his credibility as an instrumentalist in the straight jazz scene. For the most part, they're respectable straight-ahead pieces in the cool-bop-influenced style, Distel taking smooth leads that show a debt to the work of Charlie Christian. Be aware that on some numbers, the focus isn't wholly on Distel, though this isn't such a bad thing if you're a general fan of jazz from the period, especially on the Lewis cuts, where Lewis' piano and contributions by esteemed sidemen such as drummers Kenny Clarke and Connie Kay are also prominent. Also be aware that there are no original Distel compositions on this compilation, which includes material by Lewis, Thelonious Monk, Billy Byers (who plays trombone on the tracks billed to Distel alone), Milt Jackson, and Michel Legrand, as well as standards like "All the Things You Are" (heard in two versions) and "Willow Weep for Me." ~ Richie Unterberger