A match made in heaven. I got the 1981 release Clarke/Duke project and it's a very pop influenced record but hot damn these guys can write some good pop songs. Case in point:
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George Duke and Stanley Clarke
- Thread starter markjazzbassist
- Start date
George Duke gets forgotten a lot in conversations about funk and pop, and to me, just generally seems to have been forgotten which is a shame. He’s so great!
This has nothing to do with Stanley Clarke but here are two amazing songs by George Duke, for those that don’t know his stuff:
George Duke - Cravo E Canela
George Duke - Reach For It
This has nothing to do with Stanley Clarke but here are two amazing songs by George Duke, for those that don’t know his stuff:
George Duke - Cravo E Canela
George Duke - Reach For It
Passinwind
I know nothing.
- Dec 3, 2003
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- Designer/Toaster Tech @ Passinwind Electronics
The Cobham/Duke band with Alphonso Johnson and a very young John Scofield was amazing live when I saw them a zillion years ago. Ditto for Duke's stint with Frank Zappa too.
yeah i love George Duke, his 70's output was fantastic!
one of my favorite records. That band was stacked with talent and yes, young Scofield at the beginning of his career, it's a great album!
Reach for it is amazing. A a catchy 5 minute pop funk song written for a 4 minute bass solo. Byron Miller one of the most overlooked bassists of that ere. The guy is monstrous.
They also could get over with a ballad . This features Gerald Alston. The synth solo (2:38) is heartfelt, soulful classic George.
The Duke albums with Byron are special. I saw that band with a 17 year old Sheila E, massive groove!
Two of my favorite artists together,. Duke produced this for Flora, Byron on first song, Alphonso on the second
Man forgot about Juicy. Love Alphonso's playing on that track.
Some of my favorite Alphonso tracks are with Flora.
I would have loved to hear what that band would have sounded like if that had come out 6 or 7 years earlier. 80's jazz is hard to stomach for me sometimes.
I feel the same, I blame MIDI!.
I was lucky enough to catch Clarke and Duke at the Blue Note maybe a year or so before George Duke died.
It was a really good show.
They had a little meet & greet afterwards and George Duke was extremely humble and gracious.
It was a really good show.
They had a little meet & greet afterwards and George Duke was extremely humble and gracious.
George Duke was such an amazing musical talent and such a chameleon able to easily swing from style to style. One of my favorite records from him is Brazilian Love Affair. After revisiting Stanley's solo albums I had to pull this one out to listen.
for me there is a class of 2 on synth solos, george duke and jan hammer. they make it so soulful, so humanistic, their use of the bend wheel, it's beautiful. it's not notes and scales and riffs, its truly speaking through the instrument.
These are two of my favorite George Duke tracks - both are heavily influenced by P-Funk in general and Bootsy Collins in particular.
"I Am For Real" and "Dukey Stick":
"I Am For Real" and "Dukey Stick":
I remember when that LP arrived in my college radio station record library. And it was the first time I ever heard “Louie Louie” and was able to understand the words.
George Duke was in the house band for a number of episodes of the sadly short-lived (two seasons) NBC show “Night Music,” which in my estimation had the hottest band ever assembled for a television show, with David Sanborn, Marcus Miller, Hiram Bullock, Omar Hakim, and Philippe Saisse, with at times Tom Barney subbing for Marcus Miller, and the occasional addition of Don Alias, and guest appearances by folks like Robben Ford and Donald Fagan.
I got to see them at the Paramount Theater Portland. Hardy anyone was there. Other then that it was a glorious night.
Got to also see Billy and Al with Bob Weir, Bobby and the Midnites at Euphoria Tavern.
Good Times
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I saw them as a student at UMASS Amherst, must have been aroun 1982-83?. Me and another bass playing friend were sitting in the third row, which turned out not to be so great, right in front of Stanleys wall of bass speakers, which included some 18's. It was like getting punched in the chest every time he played a note. Despite the subsequent three days of my ears ringing, it was indeed an epic concert. Stanley mostly played his short scale "brown" bass, which looked like a toy in his hands, and some piccolo bass, couple tunes on upright. Damn, he was (is) good! George was playing a keyboard setup with a literal metal whammy bar on the top to bend notes, must have been before the advent of the little pitch bending levers on digital keyboards, or maybe it was just a great visual prop. He was kind of a chubby guy in those days, at one point he fell off the stage and ripped the rear of his pants seam. Embarassing! He laughed his a** off, went backsatge, and emerged wearing different pants. A True Pro.
