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Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular MusicA B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZDUKE, George(b 12 January 1946, San Rafael CA; d 5 August 2013, Los Angeles, of leukemia) Keyboards, composer, bandleader, pop producer. He led a trio '65-8; a tour with a vocal group the Third Wave included Mexico '68, Duke writing most of the material. He worked in San Francisco backing visitors Dizzy Gillespie, Kenny Dorham and others. With the Don Ellis band, then Frank Zappa '70 (he said that violinist Jean-Luc Ponty got him involved with Zappa, giving his career a big leg-up); he played on half a dozen Cannonball Adderley albums including chart hits The Black Messiah '72, Inside Straight '73, Phenix '75; with Zappa again '73-5 and co-led a group with Billy Cobham '75; since then various own groups, festivals, TV and film work, also producing (a number 1 hit USA for Deniece Williams 'Let's Hear It For The Boy' '84; Angela Bofill LP Tell Me Tomorrow '85, etc). He played on Jean-Luc Ponty Experience with the trio; Crosswinds and Live On Tour In Europe with Cobham on Atlantic and Journey To Love with Stanley Clarke on Nemperor all charted in USA, as did The Clarke/Duke Project '81, Clarke/Duke II '83 on Epic. His own albums began with The George Duke Quartet '56 on Saba, then Save The Country c.'70 on Pacific Jazz; The Inner Source '71, Feel '74 with Airto and Flora Purim, trio set Faces In Reflections '74, I Love The Blues, She Heard My Cry '75, Liberated Fantasies '76, The Aura Will Prevail '76, all on MPS (some on Verve or Pausa in USA, the last four compiled on two-CD Three Originals on Verve). On Epic: The 1976 Solo Keyboard Event (aka The Dream on MPS), From Me To You and Reach For It '77, Don't Let Go '78, Follow The Rainbow and Master Of The Game '79, A Brazilian Love Affair '80, Dream On '82, Guardian Of The Light '83, Secret Rendezvous '84. Most albums since Feel charted, as did Thief In The Night '85 on Elektra; George Duke '86 was also on Elektra. A switch to WB for Snapshot '92 included Hubert Laws and Airto; Illusions '94 had a large cast including Clarke; Muir Woods Suite '96 was named after a forest near San Francisco, the original 50 minutes of music recorded with Clarke, Chester Thompson, Paulinho Da Costa and the National Orchestra of Lille. He continued a versatile success mainly in a soft-fusion mode, but came back to funk with Dukey Treats 2008 on Heads Up Records, with his working band including Michael manson on bass, Jef Lee Johnson on guitar and Roy Bruner Jr. on drums. |