Legends of Acid Jazz

While these 12 selections were originally released on six different albums between 1965 and 1969, all of them were cut during July 1964: nine at a New York studio session, and three (embellished by Benny Golson big-band arrangements) live at Stockholm. Thus it makes for a thematically coherent compilation, every track featuring a young George Benson on guitar and Joe Dukes on drums; Red Holloway plays tenor sax on all but two songs. It’s top-drawer soul-jazz, recommended to those who might find some of McDuff’s other releases too homogenous, as his B-3 travels through diverse moods here: the uptempo blues of “Scufflin’,” the slow-burning funk of “Our Miss Brooks,” R&B/soul in the cover of “I Got a Woman.” The closing “Lexington Avenue Line” is the oddest track, though quite a good one, sounding like a movie soundtrack theme with its dramatic strings. – Richie Unterberger