Customer Reviews

Masterjam

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It was almost 30 years ago but I remember the day I picked this one up on vinyl like it was yesterday. I bought it at a record shop in Yaba, a popular shopping area in Lagos, Nigeria. I remember not being able to wait to get it home, peeling off the cellophane wrapping (it had a colourful promotional sticker on it but I can't remember what it said) and opening up the foldout double-page album like a book. There's a smell that only records have...

I remember really loving the iconic photo of the group running up that sunny California street. I remember checking out the picture of Quincy Jones on the inner left-hand page, looking young, energetic and devilishly handsome. Spread over the rest of the inside are the rest of the group; drummer and percussionist John Robinson, bassist Bobby Watson, guitarist and vocalist Tony Maiden, keyboardist David "Hawk" Wolinski, keyboardist Kevin Murphy and of course, the lovely Chaka, long dark tresses flowing all over the picture...

I remember taking out the protective inner-jacket and pulling out the shiny black disc, putting it on my dad's old stereogram, sitting back with my little brother and being awed by the production of the music that felt like it was almost reaching out and touching us. Happy Days.

It's not quite the same with a CD even if the CD is sealed (which mine was, thankfully) and the iconic inner-sleeve photography is in black and white and loses some of the vibrancy of the album original.

But oh, well. The music is definitely the same and maybe that's what really counts. The Hawk Wolinski track "Do You Love What You Feel" was the big radio and club hit (I was too young for the clubs at that time but I knew what was going on) and I remember seeing the happy folks dancing to it on "Soul Train", round about the time the record came out. It's a duet between Chaka and Tony Maiden, full of percussion and bursting with energy and, alongside "Ain't Nobody", is probably one of Rufus's best-known dance songs ever.

But my personal favourite tune was and still is, "I'm Dancing For Your Love", written by Wolinski, Robinson, Patti Austin and Q's wife (at the time), Peggy Jones. The intro gets me every time, the drums and bass are as funky as ever and I especially adore the string solo on the instrumental break. Chaka didn't even sing a note on lead on this one; Maiden flies solo, the one of two times he does so on this album. The self-penned "Walk The Rockway" is the other.

Other favourites include The Rod Temperton-penned "Live In Me", where Chaka does her multi-octave thing, going in low on the first verse and then tearing it up high on the second; "Any Love", (Wolinski again), also a stellar Chaka performance; "Heaven Bound", written by Bill Meyers, Billy Durham and Lorrin Bates; and "What Am I Missing?", penned by Chaka and her brother, Mark Stevens.

It's more or less all five star stuff; the only tune I've never really gotten into is the title track, the second Rod Temperton tune. Quincy, with engineer Bruce Swedien behind the boards, make the most of the Seawind Horns, led by Jerry Hey, who also arranged the strings. This is great sing-along fun and one of my favourite albums ever. This is Chaka Khan in her element and I'm pretty sure I don't need to tell anyone: it's a true classic.

Quincy Jones also produced Michael Jackson's "Off The Wall" the same year and legend has it he promised to produce at least one album for Chaka Khan and her group after she gave such a stunning performance on "Stuff Like That", the title track of Quincy Jones's own album the year before. Ah, the good old days.

PS. Even though I now have this on CD, I will not be parting with my vinyl copy. (Sorry, John!)

A lot of critics and music fans were quick to dis and dismiss this album because of the success of the disco release "Do You Love What you Feel" that it is connected to. That's too bad because time has revealed this to be one of Rufus' more polished and enduring works. The same happened with Earth Wind & Fire's "I AM", but we'll leave that for another review.

The instrumentation, the songwriting, and Chaka's vocalese are all in top form here. So what some of the tunes also happen to be "danceable"...is that a crime? There are admittedly a few filler songs that prevent a five star rating...but on the other hand the good songs are great and this LP still gets plenty of play in my system.

As typical with Quincy Jones productions the sound recording is audiophile quality thanks to the mixing magic of Bruce Sweiden.
Don't buy the negative anti-disco sentiment. Give it a listen and judge for yourself.

"Do you love what you feel?" That truly is the question that this album asks! Yes, I did love what I felt from that song. This was a good effort by Rufus. "Masterjam" was also good. Get a copy at a good price and enjoy it! Four stars!

Of all the music I have heard over the years, I was so happy to see that I can receive this album as a cd which I bought years ago. The timing of this music is priceless!! There is nothing here that does not move me! It brings tears to my eyes that great artists are overlooked these days and success is based on their ability to sell music and have #1 hits instead of the! What about the artistry of real musicians playing their own creative work of art! Where has the true art form gone? My most favorites are Heaven Bound, Live in Me, Body Heat, and Dancing for your Love! The riffs are fantastic and I welcome the sound of "real music" and instrumentation compared to all of the techno we have today! If there were certain things we could bottle, Chaka Khan and Tony Maiden voices would be placed in a time capsule to be savored years to come to remind us of the artistry of a Quincy Jones production as well as a Rufusized sound!

Although this album is not one of Rufus's most consistent pieces of work it does contain some great material. "Do You Love What You Feel" is a classic and Chaka's vocals in "Any Love" are haunting. She starts this number out in that deep, rich, earthy tone and ends the number wailing like a horn. Other favorites are "Live In Me", which has sort of an enchantingly mystical feel to it and "What Am I Missing" Lyricly, that is the best number on the CD. To quote: "There is an ill wind blowing with no let up in sight; Evil ill wind blowing and I've been up all night." That's my favorite track on this album.

Way too hastily dismissed as Rufus & Chaka's "disco" album,to say that this is disco makes as much sense as saying
that Michael Jackson's "Off The Wall" of the same vintage was
disco-there's simply so much more here then that.Of course CK's
vocals take front and center on every cut but what a way to begin
an album then with a classic Quincy Jones Jacksonesque radio-ready disco-funk number like "Do You Love What You Feel".Chaka's
voice and the bands chemistry has never been more aweinspiring then the smoldering "Heaven Bound" and "What Am I Missing"-boy do
those tunes convey a mood!The monster funk of "Rock The Rockaway"
and the stomping tital song need say no more."Any Love","Body Heat" and "Dancing For Your Love" are the only real disco influenced cuts but even they are so well-constructed one doesn't
care.The overall impression-while Rufus albums up until contained
ony four or five classics,they also tended upon much experimental

filler;Quincy Jones's pop production and the bands newfound funky dance beats abound and the songwriting in consistantly
top notch.This is clearly Rufus's most consistant album.

This CD is by far THE BADDEST ONE FROM THIS GROUP!! Not sure if it is because of Quincy Jones playing a role as producer or what. But this CD is good straight through. I bought the CD in 2000 and this is still one of my favorite old school CD's to jam to on the road. "Any Love", "Heavenbound", "Live With Me", uptempo remake of "Body Heat", "Dancing For Your Love" and the title track are the best songs.

Definitely worth checking out and I can see why this CD perhaps gave Chaka her wings to spread into the following year of this album (as it was called back then) to branch out beyond Rufus and do some other solo stuff (after her early solo stuff while in the group). The CD is about 25 yrs old and is still a funky ole classic from an underappreciated R&B group and vocalist!!

4 years before they reached the top of their popularity with their final album 'live - stompin at the savoy', rufus recorded an album that, even if you have not listened to it, one can easily see that this had to be a masterpiece, because it had this 'QUNICY JONES PRODUCTION' logo on it. Jones himself at the peak of his creativity as producer and arranger, made this nine brilliant compositions to become timeless soul'n'funk tunes, with a standard of quality, that only quincy himself reached, two years later , when he released his 'dude' - album. in terms of arranging 'any love' is amongst the best songs that have ever been produced (just listen to the strings, and rhythm arrangement). what rufus fans may miss on this album is their rooty and rough funk attitude, nevertheless this is an album that shoul definitely have a place in everyone's record-shelf, even if it's just because quincy, and quincy only.

I remember when this Lp came out and the smash 'Do You Love What You Feel' was receiving heavy airplay!, "Masterjam" is another great Rufus\Chaka record in their catalog, great production from Quincy Jones made this a more polished record from them but hey that's the way Quincy does... now this gem has been remastered, the sound is more fuller and you hear certain things you haven't before...get this while you still can.

The intro of heavenbound can play on my ipod all day.
This was truly an end of an era, Rufus was one of the best!
This cd is a must have for all Chaka fans,even if only to hear her mellow vocals on What am I Missing.