The blend of Hammond organ, tenor saxophone, guitar, and drums is one of the signature small-group sounds that have come to be identified with Rudy Van Gelder’s Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey studios in the last half-century. That sound is heard here in one of the definitive “organ-tenor” sessions. The Honeydripper, a blues-heavy program of impeccable groove and feeling, marks the moment at which Jack McDuff left his new star and featured sideman status behind and became a certified leading light and star-maker in his own right.

Roland Kirk, the amazing one-man saxophone section and sublime soloist, had yet to add "Rahsaan" to his name when he recorded his first album for Prestige in 1961. It wasn't yet quite clear to many, even people at the center of the jazz community, that Kirk's gifts went considerably beyond the ability to play three horns at once.