Today's album
Rhythm of Life
James Mason
Roy Ayers’s former guitarist turns fusion virtuosity into a record so warm and immediate that its difficulty almost disappears.
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What Shaped This Album
By 1977, jazz-funk was profitable, but purists often treated groove and accessibility as compromises. Inside Roy Ayers’s Ubiquity, guitarist James Mason learned another possibility: sophisticated harmony could serve songs and dancers without announcing its complexity.
For his only album of the era, Mason built dense arrangements from guitars, electric piano, synthesizers, percussion, and fast bass. Clarice Taylor and Ninoska Escobar sing about freedom, desire, and self-belief without making the tracks pop concessions. Accessibility is the accomplishment, not the compromise.
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The Album Title,Dissected
Rhythm of Life
“Rhythm of life” suggests that groove is not an ornament placed beneath a song. It is the organizing force that makes movement, work, love, and thought possible.
Mason proves the phrase through arrangement. Even when the chords grow dense or a solo opens, drums and bass keep every idea connected to the body. “Life” names the voices, solos, and textures the rhythm can hold without breaking.
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What to Listen For
The bass at sprint speed
Gene Torres plays lines on “Sweet Power Your Embrace” that stay melodic without loosening the pocket.
The layered keyboard color
Mason stacks Rhodes, Polymoog, and ARP tones, then leaves enough space for every texture to register.
The singers inside fusion
Taylor and Escobar phrase with soul directness while the chords keep moving beneath them.
The title track’s patience
“Rhythm of Life” waits through percussion and keyboards before its bass line takes full command.
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Why It Matters Today
Original copies became prized in Britain’s rare-groove and acid-jazz scenes after the small Chiaroscuro release disappeared from view. DJs recognized what conventional jazz criticism had little language for: sophisticated playing designed to produce pleasure rather than demand reverence.
That distinction remains useful. Rhythm of Life rewards close attention, but it never makes study a condition of entry. Start with the bass, then notice how many guitars, keyboards, voices, and percussion parts Mason fits around it. You can dance first and discover the architecture on a second listen.