by Alex Henderson Depending on who you talk to, 1975's Mystic Voyage is either a classic or an example of a talented musician lowering his standards in order to make more money. Many funk and soul aficionados consider Mystic Voyage a classic, and the album has been sampled extensively by hip-hop and acid jazz artists. But jazz snobs have about as much use for Mystic Voyage as they have for George Benson's Breezin' and Patrice Rushen's Pizzazz, both of which found artists who used to specialize in straight-ahead jazz burning up the Billboard charts with more commercial music. Mystic Voyage doesn't pretend to be jazz; its primary focus is R&B, and it must be judged by R&B standards instead of jazz standards. Judging Mystic Voyage by jazz standards is like ordering a pizza and complaining that it doesn't taste like Vietnamese food; pizza isn't supposed to resemble Vietnamese cuisine, and similarly, Mystic Voyage isn't meant to impress jazz's har...