Face the Music
To quote an early George Duke album title, these 10 tracks are "liberated fantasies," as for the first time in 25 years he's not recording for a multinational corporation. Free to display all sides of his musicianship, instead of aiming for one subset of jazz or the other, Duke has easily produced his best album in a decade. He digs into his fusion past with "Let's Roll" and "Another Way to Look at It," and there's his mid-'70s "Dukey Stick" persona, jamming with bassistChristian McBrideon the deep funk of "Creepin'" and the aptly titled James Brown-influenced "Ain't It Funky Now."  His take on '90s music that satisfied both the smooth jazz and contemporary jazz crowd are also prevalent on both "Guess You're Not the One" and the ballad "Close to You," which features his underrated falsetto voice. Duke even lifts a monologue from his late mentor,Cannonball Adderley, on "Black Messiah," a tune that has the feel of the late '60s, when the soul-jazz era was morphing into fusion.Face the Musicis Duke turning into a mirror and the music produced can paraphrased by the title of an early album,Faces in Reflection.--Mark Ruffin