Chick Corea was involved in a wide variety of projects during the early 1980s, some acoustic, others electric, and everything from solos and duets to orchestral projects. Touchstone really displays quite a bit of diversity with features for flamenco guitarist Paco DeLucia, a one-song ("Compadres") reunion of Return to Forever (with guitarist Al DiMeola, bassist Stanley Clarke, and drummer Lenny White), a spot for alto-great Lee Konitz ("Duende"), and a conventional sextet outing on "Dance of Chance." A bit uneven but with its interesting moments, Touchstone is worth checking out.

Billy Cobham has once again done music lovers the great honor of producing and writing this new volume in the incredible and prestigious Drum ‘n’ Voice series. Billy Cobham is a living legend of the drums, revered for his ultra-dramatic, muscular and bar-raising work with fusion pioneers the Mahavishnu Orchestra. Since the ’60s Cobham has appeared on over 300 recordings, including those by pop and rock icons such as Peter Gabriel, Jack Bruce, Bob Weir and James Brown, and has released more than thirty-five albums as a leader.

Weather Report's biggest-selling album is that ideal thing, a popular and artistic success – and for the same reasons. For one thing, Joe Zawinul revealed an unexpectedly potent commercial streak for the first time since his Cannonball Adderley days, contributing what has become a perennial hit, "Birdland." Indeed, "Birdland" is a remarkable bit of record-making, a unified, ever-developing piece of music that evokes, without in any way imitating, a joyous evening on 52nd St. with a big band. The other factor is the full emergence of Jaco Pastorius as a co-leader; his dancing, staccato bass lifting itself out of the bass range as a third melodic voice, completely dominating his own ingenious "Teen Town" (where he also plays drums!). By now, Zawinul has become WR's de facto commander in the studio; his colorful synthesizers dictate the textures, his conceptions are carefully planned, with little of the freewheeling improvisation of only five years before. Wayne Shorter's saxophones are now reticent, if always eloquent, beams of light in Zawinul's general scheme while Alex Acuña shifts ably over to the drums and Manolo Badrena handles the percussion.

Playing hand percussion and drum kit with a variety of different stars and lesser knowns, Acuna spans the breadth and depth of Latin-based rhythms from his native Peru through Cuba, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, and other South American locales. Notables Giovanni Hidalgo, Luis Conte, Anthony Carrillo, and Paoli Mejias join a varying sized cadre of singers and fellow percussion helpmates to stroll through this multi-cultural mosaic of percussive splendor. Of the smaller ensemble tracks, "Bemlerias" is a 6/8 song with electric bass and keyboards on the more contemporary side, while "L.A. Rap" sports Spanish trash talk, and the ten-minute "Descarga at Dawn" is the ultimate cha based workout for quintet with Acuna on the kit.