Reuben Wilson

Organist Reuben Wilson's releases on the Blue Note Records imprint helped ignite the jazz-funk/soul-jazz movement of the late '60s and early '70s. Taking cues from a few other Hammond B-3 players like Jimmy McGriff and Richard "Groove" Holmes, Wilson put enough funk and breakbeats in his trunk to make today's DJs drool. As his albums began to resurface in the '90s, his work was embraced by a new generation of acid-jazz enthusiasts like Greyboy Allstars and sampled by an array of artists such as Us3, A Tribe Called Quest and Nas. Over the past five years, Wilson has cut three discs, including the brand-new Godfathers of Groove, featuring Grant Green Jr. (son of legendary jazz guitarist Grant Green, who played with a variety of jazz giants) and Bernard Purdie, a cat who's kept time on more than 3,000 albums, playing with everyone from Aretha Franklin to James Brown.