George Duke (1946-2013)

I really think it's possible . . . to make good music and be commercial at the same time. I believe it's the artist's responsibility to take the music to the people. Art for art's sake is nice; but if art doesn't communicate, then its worth is negated. It has not fulfilled its destiny.

                                                                                 George Duke

Keyboard player, singer and record producer George Duke, whose career spanned the worlds of jazz and R&B, died on August 5 at the age of 67. The cause was leukemia.

The general consensus among jazz fans is that George Duke gave up a promising career as a jazz pianist and keyboardist in order to become a pop music producer and that most of his music after 1975 is of little interest. Like all generalizations, there are exceptions, but I have to agree that his recent blend of smooth jazz and R&B was, for the most part, pretty boring.

George Duke was born on January 12, 1946 in San Rafael, California. He began taking piano lessons at age 4 after seeing a performance by Duke Ellington. He held music degrees from San Francisco State University and the San Francisco Conservatory. He formed a trio in the mid-'60s and recorded his first album in 1966. He shared a recording with violinist Jean-Luc Ponty in 1969. During the first half of the '70s, he alternated between genres, playing synthesizer with Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention and electric piano with the Cannonball Adderley Quintet. He recorded with Sonny Rollins in 1975. Here he is with Zappa and Ponty.

In 1976, he formed a jazz fusion group with drummer Billy Cobham, and in 1981 he partnered with bassist Stanley Clarke on the Clarke-Duke Project. The first of his nine songs to make the R&B charts was the funk classic “Reach For It” in 1977. It was followed the next year by his popular novelty, “The Dukey Stick.” His biggest hit was was the ballad “Sweet Baby” that he recorded with Clarke in 1981. For much of the rest of his career, he sang and produced pop/R&B songs, such as Deniece Williams' #1 song, “Let's Hear It For the Boy.” His vocal persona reminded me of Barry White, but in a higher register.

He was involved in a variety of interesting projects. In 1979, he did the critically-acclaimed A Brazilian Love Affair with vocalists Milton Nascimento and Flora Purim. He also contributed to Michael Jackson's album Off the Wall, produced by Quincy Jones. During the '80s, he played off-and-on with Miles Davis. He was the composer of “Cobra,” from Miles' 1989 CD Amandla. That's Kenny Garrett on alto saxophone.

He received a Grammy in 2000 as producer of In the Moment—Live In Concert by his cousin, singer Dianne Reeves. He also produced for Smokey Robinson, the Pointer Sisters, Take Six and many others. He was leader or co-leader of almost 40 albums. His recent CDs did well on the smooth jazz charts. Here he is with the promo for his final album, Dreamweaver, released last month.