George Duke RIP

[cuttime]

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/201 ... rdist-dies

[twistedtom]

I am sad to hear this, i was thinking of him the other day. I have some of is albums and loved his playing. I was introduced to Gorge's music by one of the producers for his record company, the producer came to my collage music class and gave out a bunch of albums. I got a number of them from different artists, but of all of the albums Gorge's were the one's I loved best. The man could play.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Bummer. I saw him at the Hollywood Bowl last year. Great show! Great player.

[David Polich]

Wow...and the latest version of Keyboard magazine features him on the cover.
So sad. From what I've read, it may be that he never really recovered from his
wife's death.

A giant of jazz and a great human being.

[kgdrum]

RIP George
George was musically a great talent and a very very nice man, I had the pleasure to meet him & hang out with him a few times back in the 70's.George was funny, very nice and totally approachable, we lost a great person as well as an amazing talent RIP.

[philbrown]

Sad news. Killer player.
I go clear back to his trio days with Ndugu.
Got to see him just once with Zappa.

[cuttime]

The Zappa archives really need to get their act together and produce a decent master of this material:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnDqHppWS_Q

[monkey man]

He's been my all-time favourite musician (any instrument) for 26 years and was instrumental(!) in shaping my appreciation of music and indeed life. He was the main man. I've been meaning to start a Dukey thread here for at least 5 years, but never got around to it. Sorry about that. I'd not have had much to say, really, as I'm just a punk with good ears, and would have relied completely on others for thread sustenance.

I think I've got every release of his, and yes, the '80s saw a couple of crappy efforts littered with white-noise snares and brass samples, but many fell for this trap back then; it's like autotune today, I s'pose. Thankfully the couple of duds pale into insignificance numerically. I urge anyone who hasn't explored his '70s releases (early fusion, funk etc) to consider doing so. Don't overlook The Aura Will Prevail and Faces in Reflection either ('73-'74 I think); their awesomeness and uniqueness far surpass my ability to describe them. I like to think of them as representing his transitional phase between his jazz roots and what was to come.

I can't overstate how sad this news makes me. I've dreaded for decades the day that marked the point from which we'd see no more work from George. I'd always hoped I'd meet him one day and be able to thank him for the inspiration and love.

Funk up Heaven for us, won't you George?

Ironic that he died on August 5th, the same date as my best friend and housemate (age 31) several years ago. It's good in that I know I'll always think of him on the anniversary.