Sphere were an American jazz ensemble which began as a tribute to Thelonious Monk. Consisting of Monk's longtime tenor saxophonist Charlie Rouse, pianist Kenny Barron, bassist Buster Williams, and Monk's former drummer Ben Riley, saxophonist Gary Bartz assumed Rouse's place after his death in 1988.

Tasteful, low-key, and ingratiatingly melodic, Charlie Byrd had two notable accomplishments to his credit applying acoustic classical guitar techniques to jazz and popular music and helping to introduce Brazilian music to mass North American audiences. Born into a musical family, Byrd experienced his first brush with greatness while a teenager in France during World War II, playing with his idol Django Reinhardt. After some postwar gigs with Sol Yaged, Joe Marsala and Freddie Slack, Byrd temporarily abandoned jazz to study classical guitar with Sophocles Papas in 1950 and Andrés Segovia in 1954.

After five years, Threshold returns with a new album, featuring original vocalist Damian Wilson. With a total running time of 70+ minutes, the aptly-titled 'March of Progress' features to-die-for melodies, top-notch vocals and songs that will please any fan of these long-running avatars of modern prog metal.

TROLLFEST, the self-proclaimed "true Norwegian Balkan metal" band, has unveiled the artwork for its upcoming album, "Brumlebassen", due in August via NoiseArt Records. Responsible once again for the amazing images that vividly depict the story of what will be the band's fifth full-length album, is Swedish cartoonist Jonas Darnell, who originally created the iconic metal duck from TROLLFEST's "Villanden" album, and has worked with the band ever since. Terje Johnsen, who has been working on the design side of TROLLFEST's releases since the "Brakebein" album, has once again teamed up with Darnell to produce the finished package.

Much like G. Love & Special Sauce, the New York trio known as Fun Lovin' Criminals hit the alternative airwaves with a blend of hip-hop beats, alternative style, and bluesy rhythms. The group was formed in 1993 by bassist Brian Leiser (Fast) and drummer Steve Borgovini, who had met in Syracuse while going to school; the pair formed a techno group but later moved back to New York City, where they hooked up with vocalist/guitarist Huey Morgan.