A stunning set of heavy jazz funk – and the only album we've ever seen from organist Bill Mason – a player who's probably best known for his searing work on the Rusty Bryant albums Fire Eater and Wildfire! The session here has the same sort of groove – long tracks, with a very open, jamming vibe and plenty of room for solos – all handled by producer Bob Porter, who also put together the Bryant albums for Prestige (as well as similar classics by Melvin Sparks, Boogaloo Joe Jones, and others!) The group is great – with Hubert Laws on tenor, Gary Chandler on trumpet, Wilbert Longmire on guitar, and the mighty Idris Muhammad on drums – ensuring the funky core on long tracks that include "Gettin Off", "Stone", "Mistery Jay", and "Now Run & Tell That". The record is one of the rare few gems on the Eastbound subsidiary of Westbound Records – home to Funkadelic and The Counts! LP, Vinyl record album

2 killer jazz funk albums – both rare, and both on one CD! The records were cut for the short-lived Eastbound side of the soul/funk Westbound label, both under the supervision of Bob Porter, who handled some of the best early 70s jazz funk work for Prestige! Both albums also feature drumming by the super-heavy Idris Muhammad – who keeps things very much in his classic breakbeat mode. Bill Mason was an obscure organ player who performed on the legendary Rusty Bryant funk LPs (Fire Eater & Wildfire), and his session here has the same kind of fierce groove – with tenor by Hubert Laws, trumpet by Gary Chandler, and guitar by Wilbert Longmire. Titles on that one include "Gettin Off", "Stone", "Mistery Jay", and "Now Run & Tell That". Gary Chandler's album is even better – and features organ work by Ceasar Frazier, guitar by Cornell Dupree, and tenor by Harold Ousley. The album includes a much-sampled version of "Baby Let Me Take You In My Arms", plus the cuts "Kaleidoscope", "Jet Set", and "Blue Dues". Both records are great – and together, they'd cost you well over $100 in the original! CD

A seminal jazz funk session of the 70s – Herbie Hancock's legendary meeting with The Headhunters, and a killer batch of tunes that really gave the combo their name! Herbie's playing a wide range of keys here – including Fender Rhodes, clavinet, and Arp – but almost even better is the work from the rest of the group – including Bennie Maupin on soprano and tenor sax, Paul Jackson on bass, Harvey Mason on drums, and Bill Summers on percussion! The earthier elements of the rhythm players really keep Herbie on track – bringing him back to the planet from previous trips into space, and helping him hit an all-solid, all-righteous funky groove! Titles include a great remake of "Watermelon Man", the classic original recording of "Chameleon", and the cuts "Vein Melter" and "Sly" – all nice and long! CD

With accompaniment by Clare Fischer, Gary Foster, Bill Perkins, Victor Feldman, Harvey Mason, and others. LP, Vinyl record album

Sweet, smooth, and soulful – a heck of a great album from Stanley Turrentine, and one that's recorded in a mode that steps off nicely from his best work at CTI! The sound's a bit tighter than most of his sides as Mister T, but the groove is still quite similar – a warm approach to electric soul jazz, played by the best in the business, and topped off by some great lead solo work from Stan – all in that impeccable tone, and with some surprisingly creative solo flourishes that seem to pop out of nowhere and keep the record interesting! Wade Marcus arranged, and players include Paul Jackson, Harvey Mason, Bill Summers, and Joe Sample – on tunes that include "I'm Not In Love", "There Is A Place", "Stairway To Heaven", "Everybody Come On Out", "Hope That We Can Be Together Soon", and "Airport Love Theme". LP, Vinyl record album

A seminal jazz funk session of the 70s – Herbie Hancock's legendary meeting with The Headhunters, and a killer batch of tunes that really gave the combo their name! Herbie's playing a wide range of keys here – including Fender Rhodes, clavinet, and Arp – but almost even better is the work from the rest of the group – including Bennie Maupin on soprano and tenor sax, Paul Jackson on bass, Harvey Mason on drums, and Bill Summers on percussion! The earthier elements of the rhythm players really keep Herbie on track – bringing him back to the planet from previous trips into space, and helping him hit an all-solid, all-righteous funky groove! Titles include a great remake of "Watermelon Man", the classic original recording of "Chameleon", and the cuts "Vein Melter" and "Sly" – all nice and long! LP, Vinyl record album

Music from Ramsey Lewis, Diana Ross, Harvey Mason, Sounds Of Blackness, The Black Science Orchestra, Bill Summers, John Handy, Loose Ends, Timmy Thomas, The Style Council, Leftfield, Jodeci, and more. CD

A monster – and one of the best jazz funk albums ever on Prestige! Rusty Bryant blows his top off on this one – taking his tenor stylings out of the more staid R&B mode of earlier years, working with some younger heavy funk jazz players to craft a brilliant album of long searing tunes that's forever been one of the must-haves of the early 70s jazz funk scene! Idris Muhammad's on drums, Wilbert Longmire's on guitar, and the organ work is split between Leon Spencer and Bill Mason, both monstrously great talents, with a propensity for open-stopped hard-wailing playing! Titles include "Fire Eater", "The Hooker", "Mister S", and "Free At Last". CD

A monster – and one of the best jazz funk albums ever on Prestige! Rusty Bryant blows his top off on this one – taking his tenor stylings out of the more staid R&B mode of earlier years, working with some younger heavy funk jazz players to craft a brilliant album of long searing tunes that's forever been one of the must-haves of the early 70s jazz funk scene! Idris Muhammad's on drums, Wilbert Longmire's on guitar, and the organ work is split between Leon Spencer and Bill Mason, both monstrously great talents, with a propensity for open-stopped hard-wailing playing! Titles include "Fire Eater", "The Hooker", "Mister S", and "Free At Last". LP, Vinyl record album

A 2-in-1 killer that features some of the funkiest work ever from Rusty Bryant! First up is the legendary Fire Eater album – one of the best jazz funk albums ever on Prestige! Rusty Bryant blows his top off on this one – taking his tenor stylings out of the more staid R&B mode of earlier years, working with some younger heavy funk jazz players to craft a brilliant album of long searing tunes that's forever been one of the must-haves of the early 70s jazz funk scene! Idris Muhammad's on drums, Wilbert Longmire's on guitar, and the organ work is split between Leon Spencer and Bill Mason, both monstrously great talents, with a propensity for open-stopped hard-wailing playing! Titles include "Fire Eater", "The Hooker", "Mister S", and "Free At Last". Wild Fire is very much in the style of his Fire Eater classic, as you might guess from the title! The tracks here are all long, open, and rock-solid – held firmly in place by some incredible drums from Idris Muhammad – and featuring a group that includes Jimmy Ponder on guitar, plus the little-heard Bill Mason on organ – a player who recorded briefly for the Eastbound label, and who also handled the Hammond chores on Rufus Harley's funky album! Rusty's tenor is great, as always – really opening up with this younger generation – and titles include "If You Really Love Me", "Wildfire", "Alobamo Kid", and a version of "Riders on the Storm", of all things! CD

A seminal jazz funk session of the 70s – Herbie Hancock's legendary meeting with The Headhunters, and a killer batch of tunes that really gave the combo their name! Herbie's playing a wide range of keys here – including Fender Rhodes, clavinet, and Arp – but almost even better is the work from the rest of the group – including Bennie Maupin on soprano and tenor sax, Paul Jackson on bass, Harvey Mason on drums, and Bill Summers on percussion! The earthier elements of the rhythm players really keep Herbie on track – bringing him back to the planet from previous trips into space, and helping him hit an all-solid, all-righteous funky groove! Titles include a great remake of "Watermelon Man", the classic original recording of "Chameleon", and the cuts "Vein Melter" and "Sly" – all nice and long! LP, Vinyl record album

A seminal jazz funk session of the 70s – Herbie Hancock's legendary meeting with The Headhunters, and a killer batch of tunes that really gave the combo their name! Herbie's playing a wide range of keys here – including Fender Rhodes, clavinet, and Arp – but almost even better is the work from the rest of the group – including Bennie Maupin on soprano and tenor sax, Paul Jackson on bass, Harvey Mason on drums, and Bill Summers on percussion! The earthier elements of the rhythm players really keep Herbie on track – bringing him back to the planet from previous trips into space, and helping him hit an all-solid, all-righteous funky groove! Titles include a great remake of "Watermelon Man", the classic original recording of "Chameleon", and the cuts "Vein Melter" and "Sly" – all nice and long! CD

A seminal jazz funk session of the 70s – Herbie Hancock's legendary meeting with The Headhunters, and a killer batch of tunes that really gave the combo their name! Herbie's playing a wide range of keys here – including Fender Rhodes, clavinet, and Arp – but almost even better is the work from the rest of the group – including Bennie Maupin on soprano and tenor sax, Paul Jackson on bass, Harvey Mason on drums, and Bill Summers on percussion! The earthier elements of the rhythm players really keep Herbie on track – bringing him back to the planet from previous trips into space, and helping him hit an all-solid, all-righteous funky groove! Titles include a great remake of "Watermelon Man", the classic original recording of "Chameleon", and the cuts "Vein Melter" and "Sly" – all nice and long! CD

One of the great 70s albums that Joe Henderson cut for Fantasy Records in the 70s – a set with some nice larger arrangements, and a very soulful vibe! The group includes Dawilli Gonga (aka George Duke) on electric piano, Ron Carter on bass, Harvey Mason on drums, and Bill Summers on conga – a killer rhythm group at the core – and the set also features work from Lee Ritenour on guitar, Oscar Brasher on trumpet, Goerge Bohanon on trombone, and Hadley Caliman on both flute and tenor sax! Titles include "Immaculate Deception", "Black Miracle", "Gazelle", and "Solution". LP, Vinyl record album

A pivotal album for Barbara Mason – one in which she takes the little girl soul sound of earlier albums, and turns it into a sophisticated range of emotions that foreshadows later Philly work by singers like Jean Carn and Phyllis Hyman! Despite the Philly arrangements by Ronnie Baker, Norman Harris, and Vince Montana, there's actually a bit of a southern twinge to the record – an aspect that works nicely on the ballad cuts, which have kind of an Ann Sexton or Shirley Brown feel to them – sophisticated female soul at its best, and a real change overall for Barbara. Features the uptempo extended political cut "World War Three", plus "All in Love is Fair", "Bed and Board", "Caught in The Middle", "I Miss You Gordon", and "Me and Mr. Jones", her cover of the Billy Paul hit, and a nice version too! Includes the bonus track "Child Of Tomorrow". CD

An all-star soul affair produced by Quincy Jones, and featuring the talents of studio greats like Harvey Mason, Billy Cobham, Toots Thielmans, Dave Grusin, Lee Ritenour, and many others – not to mention the Brothers themselves! We'll be honest, though, in saying that we really think it's the great jazzy backing and the tight arrangements by Quincy that make this record so great. The Brothers' bass and vocal work is fine – but it's the non-bass instrumental moments that really make this album great, as you'll hear on cuts like the moog-heavy "Tomorrow", or the timbales/keyboard/flute groover "Thunder Thumbs & Lightnin Licks". Great stuff if you dig mid 70s work by Q – and featuring the tracks "I'll Be Good To You", "Land Of Ladies", "Free & Single", "Get The Funk Out Ma Face", and "The Devil". LP, Vinyl record album

With selections by Dave Mason, Earth Wind & Fire and The Emotions, The Jacksons, Heatwave, Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis Jr, and others. LP, Vinyl record album