Mastercuts: The Best of Jazz Funk

One of the better of a slew of funk compilations that emerged in the opening months of 2002, Mastercuts follows its Bar Social project with a double CD that mixes up some of the more well-known tracks from the much-pilfered '70s musical movement with a scattering of obscurities, all of which served as inspiration to a generation of funksters. With Roy Ayers, Lonnie Listen Smith, Idris Mohammed, and Ronnie Laws the first artists on the opening disc, little more needs to be said with regard to quality. By no means definitive, but offering as good a start as any for the eager collector.