Marathon

Digitally remastered edition. On pianist/synthesizer wizard, Rodney Franklin's sixth Columbia Records release, Marathon, he delves further into the realm of contemporary jazz (later dubbed 'smooth jazz'), funk, straight forward R&B, and Smooth R&B ballads. Starting from the late '70s and throughout the 1980s, artists whose career were more in the traditional jazz vein, were almost literally, forced to morph into the contemporary dance/R&B styling's as music, as well as technology, started to shift. Though Rodney's first album for Columbia Records, 1978's In The Center, was rooted in jazz fusion, was no exception to this rule, but he managed to create some of the finest smooth jazz throughout this time period, as evidenced here on Marathon.