Take Me To The Mardi Gras

Recorded at Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, during the December 1974 to January 1975 sessions for Two. Bob James arranged and conducted the track, with Rudy van Gelder engineering and session players including Eric Gale and Ralph MacDonald on the date. Issued on Bob James’s 1975 album Two, it became the album’s best-known cut and a key example of the polished CTI sound. Its opening bell-and-drum passage turned it into a foundational breakbeat for hip-hop sampling. The intro’s drums and bells have been sampled repeatedly, making the recording one of the most recognizable sources in hip-hop production. Its influence extends well beyond jazz, where it remains a reference point for sample-based music.