George Duke: Everyday Hero

Old school funk still lives. This song will make you want to pull those '70s-era fashions out of your closet and dance around the block. Imagine something in the vein of "Pick Up the Pieces" or "Shining Star" and those other memorable K-Tel moments, and you will get the general idea of "Everyday Hero." But it is refreshing to hear a song of this sort nowadays relying on real live musicians instead of samples and loops. Not a single "programmer" is mentioned in the personnel listing on this track. So the mood may be retro, the lyrics banal, but the rhythm section is tight and hot and in the flesh. Drummer Ron Bruner, Jr. and percussionist Sheila E get high marks from me. Along with Duke, they take this simpleminded material and make it into something worth shaking your moneymaker over.