The Aura Will Prevail (with Alfonso "Slim" Johnson & Leon "Ndugu" Chancler)

George Duke’s 1974 album The Aura Will Prevail opens with “Dawn,” a song that signifies everything the multifaceted musician was trying to accomplish during this fruitful stretch of his career. How to categorize this music? It has the open-ended tonality of jazz, the garrulous virtuosity of jazz, the juiciness of funk, and the stoned disposition of classic rock. Songs like “For Love (I Come Your Friend)” and “Floop De Loop” are even more genre-resistant, but it was obvious that Duke’s music benefitted from his unhinged imagination. While these recordings will appeal primarily to connoisseurs of '70s funk, there's no mistaking the influence of Frank Zappa, Duke’s mentor and former employer. Zappa wrote “Uncle Remus” and “Echidna’s Arf,” the latter of which might be the most dizzyingly complex song Duke ever attempted. Despite his ferocious instrumental prowess, Duke valued mood more than anything else. The starkest tracks—such as “Foosh” and “Fools”—are the album’s best moments, if only because they emphasize the maestro’s flair for inimitably dank atmospheres.