Craft Recordings, the catalogue arm of the Concord label, has announced their roster of titles for Record Store Day Black Friday, all of which will be available exclusively through brick-and-mortar record shops on November 27. Among the diverse titles: a complete 1982 concert by George Thorogood and the Destroyers, early live sessions from Jewel, a 7" single of Vince Guaraldi's "Christmas Time Is Here," a 10th-anniversary re-press of Norma Jean's Meridional, and a new Jazz Dispensary compilation
With CHIC co-founder/co-producer/guitarist Nile Rodgers back in the musical spotlight where he belongs - his distinctive funk guitar anchors Daft Punk's chart-topping single "Get Lucky," the arguable song of the summer - Rhino's U.K. arm has done well to introduce another CHIC-oriented compilation to stores. Up All Night: The Greatest Hits (cheekily named after a lyric in "Get Lucky") is more than just a set of tracks by the immortal disco band. Sixteen of the album's 25 tracks are classics
Anyone who knows the story of CHIC (told quite well in last year's box set and to be told on the printed page in guitarist/producer Nile Rodgers' memoir in October) knows that their success was not limited to their roles as lead performers but writing and production as well - not just for themselves, but for a host of luminaries from Sister Sledge to Diana Ross. The first step in that direction, though, was a solo album for CHIC singer Norma Jean Wright, the first extracurricular project