Rusty McDusty

Recorded at Studio Five Recording in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1977, with Morris Wilson on tenor saxophone, flute, and vocals, alongside a band including Sherman Lamb on drums, Dickie Van Lowe on guitar, Steve Hagman on keyboards, Johnny Willis and Stanley Hill on bass, and a brass section featuring Arnold Gross and Greg Haugesag on trumpet. The session was produced by Danny Wilson and engineered jointly by Morris Wilson and Gene Tomas. Released as a private press on Wilson's own MoWil Records label, 'Rusty McDusty' was part of the self-titled debut album that placed the Minneapolis saxophonist squarely within the Twin Cities funk and jazz-funk scene that preceded the city's later international fame, demonstrating that the region had a thriving, self-sustaining Black music underground well before Prince and Morris Day brought it to mainstream attention. The Morris Wilson! LP became one of the most sought-after private press funk records in the crate-digging world, with copies regularly selling for hundreds of dollars, and 'Rusty McDusty' has been singled out as a highlight on multiple rare-groove compilations including the Secret Stash-released Twin Cities Funk and Soul anthology. The track stands as a key document of Minneapolis's pre-'Purple Rain' era underground soul scene.