George Duke 1946 2013

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

obituary

[eighthobstruction]

A musician with a good sense of humour....sad passing....

[Ian Thumwood]

Shame that this thread hasn't really been picked up. I saw George Duke about 5 years ago when he led the band that backed Chaka Khan. I can't remember much about him although I recall that the singer was really good. Duke is a strange one to categorise as he seems to be in jazz whilst perhaps having a bigger association with musicians who lean of the jazz side of pop. I don't have anything by him in my collection although he is there as a producer on albums by Miles and Dianne Reeves.

[Tenor Freak]

Ian - there's a lovely obit in teh Graun: http://www.theguardian.com/music/201...ke?INTCMP=SRCH

He impressed a lot of people and nobody had a bad word to say about him.

RIP, as always

[Alyn_Shipton]

If anyone has any particular favourite GD tracks - I'm hoping to play some in his memory on JRR. Soonest posted the sooner played...

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

Ian - there's a lovely obit in teh Graun: http://www.theguardian.com/music/201...ke?INTCMP=SRCH

He impressed a lot of people and nobody had a bad word to say about him.

RIP, as always

Tenor F the link above is to the Graun Obit

[Serial_Apologist]

George Duke was a good pianist/keyboards player, as anybody in possession of the Jean-Luc Ponty double Blue Note LP of recordings with Duke and Zappa from 1969/70 issued in the mid-seventies, or Flora Purim's "Butterfly Dreams" will doubtless testify; whether or not he would ever have emerged from the shade of Herbie Hancock in terms of evolving an approach of his own remains doubtful, I think, and it is my guess that it was to disguise lack of originality that George Duke turned commercial from the mid-70s on. "Shine On" is frankly awful with its interminable harmonic mimicry of every discofunk hit coming out without exception at the time, and ditto interminable backbeat; one almost was forced to agree with Wynton Marsalis's youthful claims that jazz had lost its way with jazz funk until one realised he was scooping up the baby along with the bathwater.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

not this baby ...

[Exonian]

If I may say, I always liked his mid-70s lps on BASF/MPS, especially 'I Love The Blues, She Heard Me Cry' from 1975. And if I may further venture (as someone who also likes jazz-funk), 'Brazilian Love Affair 'from 1980 is a great track.

[Boilk]

If anyone has any particular favourite GD tracks - I'm hoping to play some in his memory on JRR. Soonest posted the sooner played...

Well, I guess the jazzier stuff will be most appropriate...

• Vulcan Mind Probe (The 1976 Solo Keyboard Album)
• Preface - The Future (Don't Let Go)
• Giant Child Within Us - Ego (I Love the Blues She Heard My Cry)
• Bus Tours (Snapshot)
• Backyard Ritual (Miles Davis - Tutu)

[Boilk]

George Duke was a giant of his generation - composer, arranger, producer, concert director, and a good singer too. As an aside to his solo career, he produced a plethora of top-notch artists, and also wrote for them (e.g. Miles Davis, Anita Baker). In the words of his friend and frequent musical collaborator Stanley Clarke: "He lived the life of 30 musicians" - which is no exaggeration.

BUT, I hope Duke isn't remembered chiefly as Zappa's keyboard player since - at least amongst American musicians - he pioneered (along with Joe Zawinul) the expressive use of synths and electric keyboards in jazz or jazz-rock contexts. He penned and produced around 40 solo albums, of amazing musical variety and exhibiting virtuosity in both arrangements and production values. You can hear 'Dukisms' in the work of producers Quincy Jones and Arif Mardin, to name but two. His work has also been sampled (sometimes rather questionably) by artistes young enough to be his grandchildren, including a fair number of hip-hop artists.

[Exonian]

Good points well made Boilk. In fact his voice had a lighter shade of Bill Withers about it (especially on the superb title track to 'I Love The Blues, She Heard Me Cry'). He was a very talented musician and his use of electronics in the early to mid- 1970s was matched by a large number of jazz musicians. After all, Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock had caused any manner of controversy with their forays into electronics and funk.