George Duke Recommendations

I loved George's string of albums in the mid 70s - Feel, The Aura Will Prevail, I Love The Blues She Heard My Cry, Liberated Fantasies (all on the German MPS label), then From Me To You on Epic.

All feature various Mothers from that period, plus Airto and other 70s luminaries. There's an undoubted 70s fusion feel to them all, which is either a good or bad thing depending on where you sit.

I've also got Follow The Rainbow and Reach For It but time has erased any good memories I had about them.

If I were to single one in particular out it'd be Aura which still has a lot of magic for me.

Sadly the MPS albums are complete buggers to find on CD.

A bit more 80's funk, but I love "THIEF IN THE NIGHT", especially the track "Why" - I think it was the first album he did for Elektra if that helps.

George has become more smooth jazz oriented over the last 20 years or so so it depends what style music you like most. I like his recent stuff and his recordings are always excellent quality.

'Illusions' is excellent and others worth considering are:
'Snapshot'
'Face the music'
'Is love enough'
'Cool'
'In a mellow tone'

He also has composed some more theme oriented work which is good and has quite a mainstream jazz feel. You could try:
'Guardian of the light'
'Master of the Game'
'Muir woods suite'

regards
Geoff

The Clarke/Duke project albums are pretty good.

Thanks for the feedback guys. I will do some investigations.......

Graham.

I particularly like Duke's work with guitarist John Scofield, which also featured the phenomenal Dennis Chambers on drums.

Also enjoy Duke with Zappa.

All best,
Fred