Breaking news: Keyboard legend George Duke dies at age 67 - Pittsburgh Jazz Network2024-03-28T22:15:33Zhttps://jazzburgher.ning.com/forum/topics/breaking-news-keyboard-legend-george-duke-dies-at-age-67?groupUrl=obituaries&commentId=1992552%3AComment%3A303018&x=1&feed=yes&xn_auth=noToo young, too talented.You'l…tag:jazzburgher.ning.com,2013-08-07:1992552:Comment:3030182013-08-07T22:18:14.079ZRoberta Windlehttps://jazzburgher.ning.com/profile/RobertaJeanWindle
<p>Too young, too talented.You'll be greatly missed by all your fans. RIP</p>
<p></p>
<p>Too young, too talented.You'll be greatly missed by all your fans. RIP</p>
<p></p>
LEGENDARY KEYBOARD PIONEER…tag:jazzburgher.ning.com,2013-08-07:1992552:Comment:3034222013-08-07T03:16:23.198ZDr. Nelson Harrisonhttps://jazzburgher.ning.com/profile/NelsonHarrison
<div style="font-size: 16pt; color: #007da1;"><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; color: #a20000;"><strong><em> </em></strong></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span>LEGENDARY KEYBOARD PIONEER GEORGE DUKE DIES AT 67</span><strong> </strong></p>
<div style="font-size: 16pt; color: #007da1; display: inline !important;"><em> </em><div style="font-size: 16pt; color: #007da1; display: inline !important;"><em><em> …</em></em></div>
</div>
<br />
</div>
<div style="font-size: 16pt; color: #007da1;"><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; color: #a20000;"><strong><em> </em></strong></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span>LEGENDARY KEYBOARD PIONEER GEORGE DUKE DIES AT 67</span><strong> </strong></p>
<div style="font-size: 16pt; color: #007da1; display: inline !important;"><em> </em><div style="font-size: 16pt; color: #007da1; display: inline !important;"><em><em> </em></em></div>
</div>
<br />
<div style="font-size: 16pt; display: inline !important;"><p style="display: inline !important; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><strong><em> </em></strong></p>
</div>
</div>
<div style="font-size: 14pt; color: #000000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;"><div style="text-align: left;" align="left"><div><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt;"> </p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;">NEW ORLEANS <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;">- </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14pt;">GRAMMY® Award-winning keyboardist/composer/arranger/producer George Duke has died <a class="imgCaptionAnchor" shape="rect" href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001PK9D-sOmvKwUc6zjb5KDtgr6wkBo_E0M8XY-GBeZqg-aTitEzDgUAWn47kdEfbiMFloGcFhKy1XqpIIFL1ahbhUFb-wHrfDUeRkjzhOw5jmu1u8bX-IBEWiiK_2z09vRCTGmeNRvBJ2GqBYglJOEp8eFi5_6SboIuhOtOTVlDdVvJKYKghy8NKQD3PSPtqYDchxY8y-T73BL8g6kARiNaKvQrvvZT6q-Zm1ZZxo8B5pKCUWiqZm2nIdHqg6zlvN0jT7ki2GCjKD4Gkkup5TWmk7DMjAMJuJj_a_2ljLeE6AkfFCG7FQVt_0IFPhasYcZRIlbr8F6FuQHHhyZIy7KCHfnDonH6ThfTqdThIMpaZpl-g9p-YZ0DE75YjyPQTcj" target="_blank"><img src="http://ih.constantcontact.com/fs156/1011087220895/img/3512.jpg" name="ACCOUNT.IMAGE.3512" alt="George Duke" align="right" border="0" height="236" hspace="5" vspace="5" width="236" id="ACCOUNT.IMAGE.3512"/></a> in Los Angeles at age 67. He was battling and being treated for chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).</span></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14pt;">Duke last performed in New Orleans during the 2013 New Orleans Jazz Fest this past year. In 2008 he served as the artist-in-residence for the Louis Satchmo Armstrong Summer Jazz Camp along with the faculty (including Clyde Kerr, Germaine Bazzle, Nicholas Payton, Steve Masakowsky, Kidd Jordan, Kent Jordan and more) at Club 300 Jazz Bistro (300 Decatur Street) in New Orleans. </span></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"> </p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">With almost a half a century career, Duke was one of the world's most prolific jazz legends. From leading a jazz trio with a young Al Jarreau during his formative years to working with Jean-Luc Ponty, which afforded Duke's first recording contract with MPS Records and his first exposure to Europe, to his incredible work with Cannonball Adderley, drummer Billy Cobham, and Frank Zappa, to his cherished stream of jazz-funk records in the '70s, Duke found his mark not only in his eclecticism, but also his signature approach to the synthesizer, which often prized less pyrotechnics in favor of blues elements.</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"> </p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">"We are all devastated by the sad news of George's passing," says Mark Wexler, General Manager of the Concord-Telarc Label Group. "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."</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"> </p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">"The outpouring of love and support that we have received from my father's friends, fans and the entire music community has been overwhelming," says Rashid Duke, George's son. "Thank you all for your concern, prayers and support."</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"> </p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"> </p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">Duke was born in San Rafael, California, in January 1946. When he was four, his mother took him to a performance by that other Duke of jazz, Duke Ellington. He admits that he doesn't remember much of the performance, but his mother told him years later that he spent the next several days demanding a piano.</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">Duke began his formal training on the instrument at age seven, his earliest influence being the culturally and historically rich black music of his local Baptist church. By his teen years, his universe of musical influences had expanded to include the more secular sounds of young jazz mavericks like Miles Davis, Les McCann and Cal Tjader - all of whom inspired him to play in numerous high school jazz groups. After high school, he attended the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and received a bachelor's degree in 1967.</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"> </p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">But perhaps the most important lessons came after college, when Duke joined Al Jarreau in forming the house band at the Half Note, the popular San Francisco club, in the late '60s. He also played with Sonny Rollins and Dexter Gordon in other San Francisco clubs around the same time.</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"> </p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">For the next several years, Duke experimented with jazz and fusion by collaborating and performing with artists as diverse as Jean Luc-Ponty, Frank Zappa, Cannonball Adderley, Nancy Wilson, Dizzy Gillespie, Billy Cobham and Stanley Clarke. He launched his solo recording career at age 20, and shortly thereafter began cutting LPs for the MPS label in the '70s. As the decade progressed, he veered more toward fusion, R&B and funk with albums like From Me To You (1976) and Reach For It (1978).</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"> </p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">During this period he recorded what is possibly his best known album, Brazilian Love Affair. Released in 1980, the album included vocals by Flora Purim and Milton Nascimento, and percussion by Airto Moreira. Love Affair stood in marked contrast to the other jazz/funk styled albums he was cutting at the time.<span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">Duke's reputation as a skilled producer was also gathering steam. By the end of the '80s, he had made his mark as a versatile producer by helping to craft recordings by a broad cross section of jazz, R&B and pop artists: Raoul de Souza, Dee Dee Bridgewater, A Taste of Honey, Jeffrey Osborne, Deniece Williams, Melissa Manchester, Al Jarreau, Barry Manilow, Smokey Robinson, The Pointer Sisters, Take 6, Gladys Knight, Anita Baker and many others. Several of these projects scored GRAMMY Awards.</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"> </p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">During this time, Duke was just as busy outside the studio as inside. He worked as musical director for numerous large-scale events, including the Nelson Mandela tribute concert at Wembley Stadium in London in 1988. The following year, along with Marcus Miller, he served as musical director of NBC's acclaimed late-night music performance program, Sunday Night.</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"> </p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">The '90s were no less hectic. He toured Europe and Japan with Dianne Reeves and Najee in 1991, and joined the Warner Brothers label the following year with the release of Snapshot, an album that stayed at the top of the jazz charts for five weeks and generated the top 10 R&B single, "No Rhyme, No Reason."</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"> </p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">Other noteworthy albums in the '90s included the orchestral tour de force Muir Woods Suite (1993) and the eclectic Illusions (1995), in addition to the numerous records Duke produced for a variety of other artists: Najee, George Howard, the Winans, and Natalie Cole (Duke produced 1/3 of the material on Cole's GRAMMY-winning 1996 release, Stardust)... (<a style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline;" shape="rect" href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001PK9D-sOmvKxheWFkaajVGMZNaA-VQDVm1yhNYTxMN5o3trAt7uQhsNdA40zj5pbxOgNs9nZj0FzI4GF3YJOqEjeHgIC5bCpr2rV9unnIgiP6cPFzLiLlALfliCe2NUU0q9lvJKDri6mLR8cVYF5Bs-1LQPX8PYCcOOKFcb7ZI3CVz3r63yUnMMtKMbENiswy-iu7pBFYgeS2rMsR4CWVhhxwCro_CewGzwk7sTVKvjBQq2oUVzBH19_MbI-FytJpcoEO5-holg7g8Ynqlp6u48H1nu7qSyIU3WKgAiUx1NoN8JmJhdGo2YNhNyRgGh3WSW2FoYvUvG_6UUSdY-Et41OIHPrxqNK9OcpcsjLO0Vc=" target="_blank">click for full bio</a>) <span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"> </p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">Duke's final recording, DreamWeaver, was released July 16, 2013 on Heads Up International, a division of Concord Music Group. The making of DreamWeaver occurred after his wife, Corine, passed away. The album debuted at #1 on Billboard's Contemporary Jazz Chart.</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"> </p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">Contact:</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">Mike Wilpizeski at 718-459-2117</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><a shape="rect">Mike.Wilpizeski@concordmusicgroup.com</a></p>
</div>
</div>
</div> The Jazz Network Worldwide fa…tag:jazzburgher.ning.com,2013-08-07:1992552:Comment:3031932013-08-07T03:02:19.188ZDr. Nelson Harrisonhttps://jazzburgher.ning.com/profile/NelsonHarrison
<center><span style="font-size: 16pt; color: #800080;">The Jazz Network Worldwide family mourns the loss of Music Legend George Duke...our prayers go out to his family and friends...RIP George, you are so missed already, your music will keep on in our hearts.</span></center>
<h1 class="entry-title" style="margin-bottom: .5em; margin-top: 0;">Jazz Keyboardist George Duke Dies at 67</h1>
<div class="entry-meta"><span class="entry-byline">By …</span></div>
<center><span style="font-size: 16pt; color: #800080;">The Jazz Network Worldwide family mourns the loss of Music Legend George Duke...our prayers go out to his family and friends...RIP George, you are so missed already, your music will keep on in our hearts.</span></center>
<h1 class="entry-title" style="margin-bottom: .5em; margin-top: 0;">Jazz Keyboardist George Duke Dies at 67</h1>
<div class="entry-meta"><span class="entry-byline">By <a href="http://entertainment.time.com/author/timeassociatedpress/" title="Posts by AP / Mesfin Fekadu" rel="author" target="_blank">AP / Mesfin Fekadu</a> </span><span class="entry-date">Aug. 06, 2013</span></div>
<p><span style="font-size: 16pt; color: #993366;"> </span></p>
<div class="entry-content"><br/> <img src="http://timeentertainment.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/ent_obit_george_duke_080613.jpg?w=260" class="full-width" alt="Image: George Duke"/><br/> <small class="entry-thumb-credit"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">KEYSTONE, JEAN-CHRISTOPHE BOTT, FILE / AP </span></small>US jazz artist George Duke performs on the Stravinski Hall stage at the 43rd Montreux Jazz Festival, in Montreux, Switzerland.<br/><p style="margin-bottom: .5em; margin-top: 0;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p>
<div><p style="margin-bottom: .5em; margin-top: 0;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">(NEW YORK) — George Duke, the Grammy-winning jazz keyboardist and producer whose sound infused acoustic jazz, electronic jazz, funk, R&B and soul in a 40-year-plus career, has died. He was 67.<span id="more-3547310"></span></span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: .5em; margin-top: 0;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">A representative for Duke said the performer died Monday night in Los Angeles. Duke was being treated for chronic lymphocytic leukemia.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: .5em; margin-top: 0;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Duke’s son, Rashid, thanked his father’s fans in a statement Tuesday. “The outpouring of love and support that we have received from my father’s friends, fans and the entire music community has been overwhelming,” he said. “Thank you all for your concern, prayers and support.”</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: .5em; margin-top: 0;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Duke was born in San Rafael, Calif. He appeared on a number of Frank Zappa albums and played in the Don Ellis Orchestra, Cannonball Adderley’s band and with jazz musician Stanley Clarke. Duke also played keyboard on Michael Jackson’s multiplatinum 1979 album, “Off the Wall.”</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: .5em; margin-top: 0;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">His wife, Corine, died from cancer last year. He was unable to make music for months, but he overcame his grief to create the album “DreamWeaver,” released last month. It features a fusion of sounds and a touching tribute to his late wife on the romantic piano-driven ballad “Missing You.”</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: .5em; margin-top: 0;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">He began taking piano lessons when he was 4 years old, after seeing Duke Ellington perform. “I don’t remember it too well ... but my mother told me I went crazy,” Duke said on his website. “I ran around saying, ‘Get me a piano, get me a piano!’”</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: .5em; margin-top: 0;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Duke said he learned a lot about music from going to church, which helped him add a funk style to his sound. He played in high-school jazz groups and was heavily influenced by Miles Davis. He earned degrees from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and San Francisco State University.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: .5em; margin-top: 0;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">On tour as part of the George Duke Trio, he performed in Los Angeles at a show where Adderley, Zappa and Quincy Jones were in attendance. Duke soon joined Zappa on a tour for a year in 1969. He joined Adderley’s band in 1971. He met Clarke through Adderley, and they formed the Clarke/Duke Project. Their song “Sweet Baby” was a Top 20 hit on the Billboard pop charts.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: .5em; margin-top: 0;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Duke became a solo artist in 1976 and released more than 30 solo albums. He also produced for Miles Davis, Smokey Robinson, Gladys Knight, Dionne Warwick and Natalie Cole.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: .5em; margin-top: 0;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">He worked as musical director for the Soul Train Music Awards and other special events. He also scored songs on soundtracks for “The Five Heartbeats” and “Karate Kid III.”</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: .5em; margin-top: 0;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p>
</div>
</div>
<p></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: .5em; margin-top: 0;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: .5em; margin-top: 0;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Read more: <a href="http://entertainment.time.com/2013/08/06/jazz-keyboardist-george-duke-dies-at-67/#ixzz2bF6RSlME" target="_blank">http://entertainment.time.com/2013/08/06/jazz-keyboardist-george-duke-dies-at-67/#ixzz2bF6RSlME</a></span></p>
<p>Visit THE JAZZ NETWORK WORLDWIDE "A GREAT PLACE TO HANG" at: <a href="http://www.thejazznetworkworldwide.com/?xg_source=msg_mes_network" target="_blank">http://www.thejazznetworkworldwide.com/?xg_source=msg_mes_network</a></p>