George Duke’s The Era Will Prevail – The MPS Studio Years (1973-1976)

A curious happenstance in 1966 triggered the partnership between MPS head Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer and George Duke.

Brunner-Schwer was in San Francisco to record the Art van Damme Quintet.

After finishing the recording session one evening, he and his team strolled over to a club called the Jazz Workshop. Les McCann was supposed to be playing but this particular day was his day off. Instead, a 20 year old pianist, still involved in his studies, was performing with his quartet. The music’s freshness so enthralled the German that he set up a recording session on the spot.

This encounter between George Duke and Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer in sunny California was both accidental and noteworthy. It turned out to be the jazzy prologue to future events: five years later the American began his fusion-infused sessions for the man from Germany’s Black Forest.

These sessions are the theme of this box set with its seven LPs. These albums still count as a fascinating and essential part of George Duke’s life’s-work and canon of the genre.

Out now, price is £145