Eddie Henderson: Sunburst (1975)

Trumpeter Eddie Henderson's Sunburst is one of the best he cut during the 70's, and easily is a rare groove masterpiece, equal parts complex Return to Forever style fusion and Headhunters's style jazz funk.

Eddie was a huge success in the early 70's as a member of Herbie Hancock's Mwandishi, band, the mother of all jazz funk space rock bands.

 At least until Miles got together with Pete Cosey and put the chug in chuggin' funk for Dark Magus, Agharta, and Pangaea.

Eddie also cranked out some nice similar styled funky space jazz for the Capricorn label, Realization and Inside Out, both stone classics of the era! My favorite still remains Sunburst, the music really does strike a perfect balance between the Capricorn years and the much more commercial funk that Henderson would lay to tape later in the 70's.

 Heritage is also worth a spin, that album seems to be a little bit dollar sign heavy to me, but still some of the sunburst style is there.

The track "Explodition" leads off in fine form, Eddie sure sounds like Miles on this track, really to be honest, their is a quite the funky vibe on this album, maybe a little more like Headhunters than say Inside Out, The title track and "The Kumquat Kids" really do amp up the funk.

 The ensemble that includes, Julian Priester and the underrated Bennie Maupin push the music into a space jazz style. Billy Cobham could achieve this as well. George Duke plays some wonderful Synths on Sunburst, a lot of static colors he employees to great affect, shimmering is a good adjective.