“It’s daunting being behind a microphone — I don’t care if you’re Aretha,” Narada Michael Walden admitted. Known best for producing and co-writing material for Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston, Kenny G, and Mariah Carey, Walden has also released several solo albums, the best of which, 1979’s The Dance Of Life, remains an essential disco release anchored by a band whose chops rivaled Chic’s. In addition, he’s an excellent drummer whose stint in John McLaughlin’s Mahavishnu Orchestra coincided with that band’s intermittently beguiling jazz-rock-New-Age fusion.