On pianist/synthesizer wizard, Rodney Franklin, a Berkeley, California native, sixth Columbia Records release, “Marathon”, he delves further into the realm of Contemporary Jazz (Later dubbed ‘Smooth Jazz’), funk, straight forward R&B, and Smooth R&B ballads. Starting from the late ‘70’s and throughout the 1980’s, artists whose career were more in the Traditional Jazz vein, were almost literally, forced to morph into the contemporary dance/R&B styling’s as music, as well as technology, started to shift. Though Rodney’s first album for Columbia Records, 1978’s “In The Center”, was rooted in jazz fusion, was no exception to this rule, but he managed to create some of the finest ‘Smooth Jazz’ throughout this time period, as evidenced here on “Marathon”. One shining example is Rodney’s 1980 monster jazz instrumental hit, “In The Groove”, taken from his second self titled Columbia release. It was a huge hit in America, as well as in the United Kingdom where it peaked at No. 7 on the UK Singles chart. How about we take a peek at some of the great musical moments of this well crafted album produced by none other than another Jazz legend in his own right, bass guitar giant, Stanley Clarke. As per usual this was remastered from the original master tapes
