Duke, George - Faces in Reflection (24 bit remastered / mini-lp sleeve)
SKU
21-SPV441032
There are a lot of good titles in this batch of MPS reissues, but if you are keeping track, for me, this was the ONE. George was a straight-forward young jazzer who recorded for the Pacific Jazz label. His albums for them were perfectly decent and very well played, but they never seemed to me to have much real personality. Then, in 1973, he joined Frank Zappa and Frank's influence and his 'pushing' of George into new areas. This was the first album George released after he joined Frank's band and while Frank doesn't appear on it, his influence does. George performs on piano, Fender Rhodes piano, clavinet and ARP Odyssey, overdubbing parts to come up with an extremely full and personal synth/electric keyboard sound that is immediately identifiable as George's sound! He's joined by John Heard on bass and Ndugu Chancler on drums. The result is what I would consider to be a slightly funky, totally original take on the jazz/rock sound and he nails everything here; great playing, great tunes and great musical personality. A must own!