George Duke S&D

http://www.concordmusicgroup.com/albums/images/HUCD/188x188/HUCD3143.jpg

o_0

Faces in Reflection just got reissued last Tues. I like that one a lot.

yeah that one's great! "feel" is just as good too (recorded same year i think). both records sound so punchy, really well recorded stuff

...and Feel just got the reissue treatment yesterday. As good a record as Faces in Reflection with Zappa as Obdewl'l X guesting on two tracks.

Let's hear it for the boy is great.

Reach for It album openers have a new age tangerine dream/john carpenter feel that segues into funky prog with brief disco interludes.

This album is great!

I just acquired a 4 cd comp that has all the albums George Duke released on MPS between 1973 and 1976 (The Inner Source, Feel, Faces in Reflection, I Love The Blues, She Heard My Cry, The Aura Will Prevail, Liberated Fantasies)... I wasn't very familiar with Duke's music before this, and I have to say the stuff on the comp a revelation! It's kinda like Herbie Hancock's material from the same era, but with a leaner, airier sound, and with less romanticism and more funk in the keyboard work. This is pretty much exactly the thing I'm looking for in fusion: cool, occasionally freaky synth-led jazz-funk tunes, and not much of the overt prog indulgencies many other fusioneers from this era had. (There still are a few of them on these albums too, especially when Duke's former bandmate Zappa is involved, but they never get too tiring.)

I also noted there's another 6 album comp that includes all of Duke's mid-to-late-70s albums for Epic, and I was thinking of getting that too. How does this material compare to the early 70s MPS stuff? From what I've read, it's more disco than jazz, but that's not necessarily a problem, since I love disco, as long as it's still funky and not super syrupy.

"the stuff on the comp is a revelation"

I'd agree that the MPS stuff is very searchworthy. The Epic stuff is much tougher, and quite uneven. I'd recommend in the following order: (1) Brazilian Love Affair (2) Don't Let Go (3) Master of the Game *Daft Punk Sample Here* (4) From Me to You. All can be found fairly cheaply (unlike MPS recs). And as Tuomas noted, you should be warned that there is disco, boogie, and even some straight ahead R&B tracks. Of the MPS releases, The Inner Source is tops for me.

Brainfeeder posted a George Duke mix as part of the pre-album hype for ThunderCat's Golden Age of the Apocalypse (which has a cover of For Love I Come) that provides a nice overview, but no tracklisting: http://www.brainfeedersite.com/2011/06/25/we-love-george-duke/

Thanks for the info. I listened to some tracks on those Epic albums on Youtube, and I definitely liked them... It does feel like Duke embraced disco wholeheartedly, instead of doing some disco/jazz hybrid, which can often sound a bit too mellow and/or complex to be good disco. I think I'll get the box set anyway, as it's still cheaper than acquiring those individual albums.

Has anyone heard this album, by the way? Apparently Duke recorded it for MPS in 1976, but it was shelved when he changed labels (which I guess is why it isn't included with the MPS comp), and it was only released officially by Epic years later. The track titles sound cool, but the fact that he plays all the instruments on it makes me a bit wary of buying it.

Passed on last night ..... such a great keyboard player..

My favourite clip of Duke and Zappa at 3:30.. he looks like the happiest man in the world...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCHMrGnMvLo

RIP

he looks pretty happy here too;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8Kl-luQil8

RIP

Aw, man, RIP. One of the key players in FZ's best or 2nd-best band.

"faces in reflection" is nutty fusionoid sugarrush zooby dooby doo

Rest In Peace, George.

r.i.p.!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrX7nYcoZJI

holy crap! I can't believe it! how sad, he was so great.

My favorite:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usC2msFdX94

and of course there's this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjli3hj0ZkM

For a guy that was known for being in a chops-heavy band (the Mothers), his playing was always very tasteful. Love his playing on "the grand wazoo" LP.

Looks like he was supporting a new record, and was scheduled to play BB Kings this weekend.

incredible musician incredible loss

man

RIP George

duke record that hasn't been really mentioned here yet is guardian of the light from 1983 which sounds like some lost earth wind and fire record, it's incredible

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DavckVZylkg

I had never heard "The Inner Source" until last week, and can't believe I've missed out for so long. All the MPS records are great imo, but this one is just like a rhodes dream. More or less all I want in music, which is why I can't stop listening to it.

Listened to Reach For It a couple of weeks ago. I expected an R&B sellout move, but it actually features a whole lot of red-hot fusion jamz, and one or two funk tunes with female singers.

I interviewed Thundercat recently and we talked a lot about Duke (his brother Ronald Bruner Jr. played on several of Duke's final albums), and Slave (Steve Arrington appears on Thundercat's new album).