Sharks 
Car Crash Supergroup
(Cherry Red)
★★★

THE latest addition to Cherry Red’s seemingly never-ending series of fascinating archive anthologies showcases the entire early 1970s output of short lived British rock band Sharks.

This impressive outfit were formed by Free bassist Andy Fraser after his departure from the All Right Now hitmakers in 1972, and found him joining forces with highly regarded session guitarist Chris Spedding, drummer Marty Simon and soulful vocalist Steve “Snips” Parsons to unleash a critically acclaimed debut album, First Water, on an unsuspecting world a few months later.

Fraser left the fold soon afterwards in the aftermath of a serious car accident and the reijigged outfit went on to record another excellent album, Jab It In Yore Eye, before finally giving up the ghost in 1974 after Island had shelved the follow up, Music Breakout, which is now available officially here for the very first time.

Return To Forever
Musicmagic
(Floating World)
★★★

RETURN TO FOREVER were one of the leading lights of the then highly influential jazz fusion movement during their creative heyday in the 1970s, and this skilfully crafted 1977 offering was the last studio offering that they captured for posterity during the decade.

Drummer Lenny White and guitarist Al DiMeola had already left the fold by this stage but founder members Chick Corea and Stanley Clarke still soldiered on regardless with a newly expanded line up, and although the finished product lacked some of the verve and confidence which had characterised their earlier commercially successful albums such as Romantic Warrior and Where Have I Known You Before, the contents are still well worth investigating.

Musicmagic also features vocals for the first time since 1973’s Light As A Feather, with Clarke and Corea’s wife Gayle Moran’s contributions lending added warmth and immediacy to this much more song orientated collection.

Nikki O’Neill
Stories I Only Tell My Friends
(Blackbird)
★★★★

INVENTIVE young singer-songwriters seem to be something of a dying breed on this side of the Atlantic but the situation couldn’t be more different in the US, where gifted performers such as Nikki O’Neill still seem to emerge on the scene with startling regularity.

This globetrotting troubadour was born in Los Angeles and grew up in Sweden but is now firmly based in Chicago.

The eclectic R&B/Americana practitioner responded to this latest relocation to America’s Mid West by penning several deeply personal songs such as the acoustic Newcomer Blues, but no-one who cites musical influences as spiritually uplifting as Aretha Franklin and Mavis Staples could ever be too introspective for too long, as listeners will discover for themselves if they take the time to investigate the upbeat delights of I Just Knew and Drive.