George Duke, weaver of dreams, a musician's musician, has gone home...

It has been confirmed that veteran jazz, R&B, funk and fusion keyboard virtuoso George Duke has died aged 67, after battling and being treated for chronic lymphocytic leukemia. This news comes after a difficult period for the acclaimed keyboardist and composer whose wife Corine passed away just over a year ago. Duke's record label Concord-Telarc have confirmed he died on 5 August in Los Angeles, his passing coming after he had just launched his latest album, DreamWeaver, which he’d dedicated to his wife’s memory and had debuted at #1 on Billboard's Contemporary Jazz Chart. Mark Wexler, General Manager of the Concord-Telarc Label Group has stated: “We are all devastated by the sad news of George’s passing. He was a great man, a legendary, one-of-a-kind artist; and our hearts go out to his family. George will be missed by all.”

<

George Duke’s career spanned jazz, funk and fusion beginning with his modern own jazz group in the 1960s backing the likes of Sonny Rollins and Dexter Gordon, but he was soon moving into the fusion terrain that would define much of his career as he began a longstanding musical partnership with violinist Jean-Luc Ponty in the early 1970s. He was invited to join Frank Zappa’s ground breaking band The Mothers Of Invention and worked with them from 1969-1975, while also going on to work with Sonny Rollins and co-lead a band with Billy Cobham. His solo career began to take shape too as he released a number of classic albums for MPS and Epic including Faces in Reflection, I Love the Blues, The Aura Will Prevail, Brazilian Love Affair, Master of the Game and Thief In the Night.

<

In the 1970s his producing credits also began to mount up and included work with Raul de Souza, Dee Dee Bridgewater, and A Taste of Honey as well as many funk and R&B artists such as the Pointer Sisters, Smokey Robinson, 101 North, George Howard, Gladys Knight, Najee, Take 6, Howard Hewett, Chanté Moore, Everette Harp, Rachelle Ferrell (his key collaborator in the early-1990s), Gladys Knight, Keith Washington, Gary Valenciano, Johnny Gill and Anita Baker. The 1980s saw him team up with bass icon Stanley Clarke in their ongoing Clarke/Duke jazz fusion project as well as sessions with Miles Davis, while the 1990s and 2000s saw Duke focus on his solo career as producer/composer and performer – leading one of the leanest and meanest live bands around.

Duke had recently returned to form in the studio and remained a hugely popular live draw at festivals and jazz clubs around the world. He will be sorely missed by his legions of fans from both R&B/soul and jazz-fusion worlds.

[Source: Jazzwise Magazine]

<

Featuring George Duke on keyboard & lead vocals

[Reposted 7 August 2013]

A neuron-mutating classic performance! Michael Brecker Band ~ Hamburg 1987

The legendary Brecker brothers, Randy & Michael, first came to my attention when both joined Frank Zappa's recording & touring outfit in the late 1970s. This classic recording was from the Hamburg Jazz Festival 1987 when both brothers were featured with their own bands. This is from the Wikipedia entry on the Brecker Brothers:

The Brecker Brothers was the musical duo of Michael (saxophone, flute, and EWI) and Randy Brecker (trumpet, flugelhorn), who recorded commercially successful jazz fusion albums together in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. They had a notable hit single with "East River" in 1979. It reached #34 in the UK Singles Chart.

Older brother Randy first became famous as an original member of the group Blood, Sweat & Tears. He appeared on their debut album Child Is Father to the Man in 1968. In addition to recording their own compositions, the brothers frequently played together as session musicians on albums by many other artists.

They were heard on Todd Rundgren's hit "Hello It's Me" which reached #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1972. Other notable appearances include Parliament's Mothership Connection and the debut album of the Japanese fusion group Casiopea.

The brothers were touring as members of Frank Zappa's band in the late 1970s and appeared on the 1977 album Zappa in New York. Both brothers also had prolific recording careers as leaders of their own ensembles.

Their collaborations came to an end in 2007, when Michael Brecker died from leukemia.

[First posted 1 October 2013, reposted 2 July 2018]

A TRIBUTE TO JOE ZAWINUL

The Joe Zawinul Syndicate @ Wiener Festwochen (May 2007) featuring Senegalese bassist Alune.

Josef Erich Zawinul (7 July 1932 - 11 September 2007) was born in Landstraße, Austria, and studied classical music at the Vienna Conservatoire. At 27 he received a scholarship to study at the Berklee College of Music in the U.S. There he was advised by his teacher to go out and play professionally as he was already so accomplished a musician there was little he could learn from further academic studies.

Prominent jazz musicians with whom Zawinul has been associated include Maynard Ferguson, Wayne Shorter, Miles Davis, Cannonball Adderley, and Jaco Pastorius. Together with Wayne Shorter, Zawinul formed the jazz fusion group Weather Report in 1970. Zawinul is widely regarded as the main thrust behind the jazz fusion movement that blurred the boundaries between pop, rock, funk and jazz. His eclectic group, the Joe Zawinul Syndicate, was a pioneer of the world music fusion sound and served as an excellent showcase for musical talents from Africa, Brazil, Cuba, and India. On August 7, 2007, Zawinul was hospitalized just one week after he concluded a 6-week European tour. About a month later one of the greatest innovators on keyboard the jazz world has known was reassigned to Eternity.

Joe Zawinul and friends celebrating his 75th birthday on stage in Lugano, Switzerland on July 7th, 2007.

The Joe Zawinul Syndicate: Allegre Correa (guitar); Linley Marthe (bass); Jorge Bezerra (percussion/voice); Paco Sery (drums); Aziz Sahmaoui (percussion/voice); Sabine Kabongo (vocal); Joe Zawinul (keyboard & vocal).