George Duke started playing the piano at 7, inspired by Duke Ellington. He worked with Al Jarreau in the 60s. In 1969, Duke accompanied Jean-Luc Ponty, recording with the violinist. After eight months with Don Ellis’ Orchestra, he joined Frank Zappa for much of 1970. Duke spent 1971-1972 with Cannonball Adderley and then returned to Zappa for 1973-1975. In 1975, he worked with Sonny Rollins, co-led a group with Billy Cobham, and then formed a funk band (the Clarke-Duke Project) with Stanley Clarke. By the late ’70s, he was completely outside of jazz, playing R&B and producing projects for pop artists like Anita Baker and Rachelle Ferrell.
This is George with Stanley Clarke in “Brazilian Love Affair’:
mostly via the-breaks:
- “Seeing You”
- Hieroglyphics - “You Never Knew”
- Large Professor - “Dancing Girl”
- “Reach for It”
- Breeze - “Loungin’”
- Frankie Cutlass - “The Cypher Pt 3″
- Ice Cube - “True to the Game”
- Spice 1 - “In My Neighborhood”
- WC & the Maad Circle - “West Up”
- “Dukey Stick”
- Paris - “Guerrilla Funk”
- Spice 1 - “Clip & the Trigga”
- “I Love You More”
- Daft Punk - “Digital Love”
Interesting.
I sampled Brasilian Love Affair by George Duke in my latest track, “The Big Split”:
http://www.condraonline.com/files/thebigsplit.mp3
Nice blog. Keep up the good work.