1979 · Album
Master of the Game
Recorded 1979 · Westlake Recording Studios, Los Angeles · Epic Records
Funk and Finesse in 1979
Duke assembled a first-rate band and let them play with real groove and precision.
Master of the Game arrived in 1979 as a solid mid-career statement from George Duke, landing without fanfare but with genuine musicianship behind it. Record Mirror gave it four stars, which was the kind of notice that mattered—not overwhelming critical consensus, but a real endorsement from someone listening closely. This was a working album, not a chart bid. It built its reputation slowly, the way funk-fusion records did in that era: it found its audience among people who actually played keyboards or cared about session precision.
Duke filled the studio with serious players. Sheila Escovedo on percussion brought immediacy and snap; Ricky Lawson on drums kept everything locked tight. The horn section—Jerry Hey, Gary Grant on trumpet, Bill Reichenbach on trombone, Gary Herbig on saxophone—had that Los Angeles session-work polish, the kind where every note lands exactly where it needs to. Vocalists like Napoleon Murphy Brock added character without overtaking the instrumental framework. This was a keyboardist's album in the best sense: Duke wasn't trying to disappear, but he wasn't hogging the space either.
The record sits in the middle of Duke's catalog—neither his breakthrough nor his peak, but the work of someone who knew exactly what he could do and did it cleanly. Westlake Recording Studios in Los Angeles was where the session happened, and you can hear the quality of the capture. If you want to understand Duke's bread-and-butter work, the professional side of his career rather than his flashier experiments, this is where that story lives.
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