The blend of Hammond organ, tenor saxophone, guitar, and drums is one of the signature small-group sounds that have come to be identified with Rudy Van Gelder’s Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey studios in the last half-century. That sound is heard here in one of the definitive “organ-tenor” sessions. The Honeydripper, a blues-heavy program of impeccable groove and feeling, marks the moment at which Jack McDuff left his new star and featured sideman status behind and became a certified leading light and star-maker in his own right. McDuff did it with a superlative group featuring the drums of stalwart Ben Dixon, the tenor sax of Ellington alum and rhythm-and-blues pioneer Jimmy Forrest, and (in one of his first New York recordings) the then-unknown guitarist Grant Green. While never a working band, this foursome displayed an instant rapport that remains a model of B-3 synchronicity.