Mothership Connection

The Essential George Duke is a double-disc, 31-track set documenting George Duke's years with Epic between 1977 and 1984 that netted an astonishing 11 albums, and the third Stanley Clarke/Duke project disc recorded in 1990. These were the years that Duke – never a jazz purist anyway – decided to take a tough swing at the R&B charts. He succeeded.

Jazz bass players are typically heard and not seen, but the lack of Stanley Clarke pictures on this predominantly instrumental collection of some of his best work is still alarming. No photos and no liner notes other than track personnel make this appear like a quickie release, maybe one without much of Clarke's input. Regardless, the 14 tracks compiled here are some of the bassist's best moments from notoriously uneven albums recorded between 1974 and 1989, with two previously unreleased tunes waxed in April 1995. As a jazz-funk bassist Clarke is perhaps without peers, and his second, third, and fourth albums from 1974-1976 best captured that style before he deteriorated into second-rate disco and watered-down R&B in the late '70s and '80s…

Greatest Hits is a fine ten-track overview of the funk keyboardist's late-'70s/early-'80s recordings, containing all three of his Top Ten R&B hits ("Reach for It," "Dukey Stick," "Sweet Baby") plus a good selection of minor hits and album tracks.