I first saw the enigmatic keyboardist George Duke, back in the '70's with violinist Jean Luc Ponty and the incredible Frank Zappa and his stellar line up of the Mothers of Invention, featuring Ruth Underwood, Tom Fowler, Chester Thompson and Napoleon Murphy Brock. Soon he would team up with now legendary jazz icons Stanley Clarke and Billy Cobham. His subsequent solo albums with Flora Purim, Airto Moriera, Ndugu Chancler and Alphonso Johnson were equally unforgettable. In the ensuing years, Duke has become an in demand record producer winning grammys and working with many of the most popular artists on the scene today. For his debut at Yoshi's San Francisco, Duke comes in leading his own group which will cover his hits from the past and perhaps some surprises too. His performances in Oakland have always been packed, so get your tickets early for this one, and as they say, " bring your Dukey Stick!"Duke was born in San Rafael and reared in Marin City. When he was just four years old, his mother took him to see Duke Ellington in concert. "I don't remember it too well," says George, "but my mother told me I went crazy. I ran around saying 'Get me a piano, get me a piano!'" He began his piano studies at age seven, absorbing the roots of Black music in his local Baptist church. "That's where I first began to play funky. I really learned a lot about music from the church. I saw how music could trigger emotions in a cause-and-effect relationship."By the age of sixteen, George had played with a number of high school jazz groups. He was heavily influenced by Miles Davis and the soul-jazz sound of Les McCann and Cal Tjader. Attending the San Francisco Conservatory Of Music and majoring in trombone and composition with a minor in contrabass, he received his Bachelor of Music degree in 1967.
Duke and a young singer named Al Jarreau formed a group which became the house band at San Francisco's Half Note Club. "There was another club up the street called The Both/And and I worked there on Mondays with everybody from Letta Mbulu to Sonny Rollins and Dexter Gordon." George later received a Masters Degree in composition from San Francisco State University and briefly taught a course on Jazz And American Culture at Merritt Junior College in Oakland. It was about this time that George began to release a series of jazz LP's on the MPS label.One night, on a local jazz station, George heard a record by the violinist Jean-Luc Ponty. When he found out that Jean-Luc was coming to California to record, he sent a tape to Dick Bock at World-Pacific Records, along with a note saying "There is no other pianist for this guy but me."
The George Duke Trio which emerged from those sessions was soon burning a path of creative excitement through the jazz world. It included a major European tour and an appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival. The group's first gig in a rock-oriented venue came in early 1969. "It was a club in Los Angeles called Thee Experience," George recalls. In attendance were Cannonball Adderly, Quincy Jones, Frank Zappa, and the unexpected presence of an electric, rather than acoustic, piano on-stage. The Ponty-Duke performance wowed the crowd, and ushered in the West Coast counterpart of the Eastern fusion revolution sparked by Miles Davis, The Mahavishnu Orchestra and Weather Report. Before '69 was out, George joined Frank Zappa (as he put together a new "Mothers of Invention" lineup) and toured for an entire year.
At the end of 1970, Duke received an offer he couldn't refuse from veteran jazzman Julian "Cannonball" Adderly. "I joined the group in January '71, and stayed two years. Through Cannonball, I was given the opportunity to meet and work with Nancy Wilson, Joe Williams, Dizzy Gillespie -- all these great artists I'd been listening to since I was a kid. I met Stanley Clarke through my association with Cannonball. We played a festival in Pori Finland where I heard Stan with Chick Corea for the first time live – I was astounded! Through my recordings and live performances with Cannonball and Stanley, I developed a musical, and even more importantly, a family relationship with Flora Purim and Airto Moriera. The 70’s were filled with musical experimentation with all of these great musicians and more."
In 1973, Duke rejoined Zappa and brought Jean-Luc Ponty with him. That band stayed together for the next three years, until he left to join forces with drummer Billy Cobham. Together, they formed a powerhouse jazz fusion unit even more popular and influential than the earlier Duke/Ponty group.Duke became a solo artist in 1976, and enjoyed success with a series of fusion-oriented LP's such as his debut CBS LP, From Me To You. In 1978, the funk-flavored sound of the gold album Reach For It propelled George Duke into the upper reaches of the charts, and from small clubs to large arenas.
In 1990, George Duke was named "R&B Keyboardist Of The Year" by Keyboard Magazine for the second consecutive year. Other honors include Grammy nominations for his production of "We Are The World" by the Children Of The World; "Sweet Baby" by the Clarke/Duke project; "Let's Hear It For The Boy" by Deniece Williams; "Stay With Me Tonight" and "On The Wings Of Love" by Jeffrey Osborne; and "Fumilayo" by Dianne Reeves. Tutu, by Miles Davis with selections produced by George Duke, won a Grammy in 1986. Both Miles Davis Amandla (selections produced by Duke) and Al Jarreau's Heart's Horizon (produced entirely by Duke) received Grammy nominations in 1990.
In '92, Duke's Warner Bros. debut Snapshot captured the number one slot on the jazz charts for five weeks and generated the Top Ten R&B single "No Rhyme, No Reason." The following year, Duke's Muir Woods Suite, a major orchestral piece, premiered at the Montreux Jazz Festival and, in 1994, Duke began work on Illusions. Reflecting on Illusions Duke said, "I wanted to continue what I started with the Snapshot record, to continue doing that type of music... and I wanted to do a follow-up to 'No Rhyme, No Reason."
Following the release of Illusions in January 1995, Duke began mixing the Muir Woods Suite which was recorded live, when originally performed at the Montreux Festival in 1993. When not locked in the studio with the Suite, George arranged, produced and performed on songs and albums for a number of artists, including: Najee, George Howard, and the Winans (he arranged and produced three tracks on their Qwest album Heart And Soul which was nominated for a Grammy). Duke also traveled extensively, performed a European tour with Anita Baker and a Brazilian tour with Rachelle Ferrell, as well as toured the states with his own Duke and Friends tour featuring Phil Perry, Howard Hewett, Dianne Reeves and George Howard. He ended the year performing in Jakarta with Phil Perry.
The beginning of '96 saw the release of his musical and emotional tour de force Muir Woods Suite, which was performed by a jazz quartet made up of George Duke (piano), Stanley Clarke (bass), Chester Thompson (drums) and Paulinho Da Costa (percussion) with L·orchestre National de Lille, Ettore Stratta, conductor.
Duke also produced the Grammy award winning In the Moment CD for Dianne Reeves, and Rachelle Ferrell's Individuality, delaying completion of his own year 2000 solo release, Cool. In the midst of production of his wonderfully diverse and vocally revealing sixth Warner Bros. solo release, he headlined a tribute to Jesse Jackson at a special birthday celebration for the renowned reverend, along with Stevie Wonder and Erykah Badu and continued his longstanding association as musical director for the Soul Train Awards. During the summer, Duke toured with the Montreux Jazz Festival on Tour in the USA, for which he served as both musical director and a featured artist, along with an all-star cast of musicians and vocalists including Al Jarreau, David Sanborn, Roberta Flack and Joe Sample.
Duke's career has continued to flourish, with accolades too numerous to mention here, however for a glimpse of one the greatest keyboardists of our generation, trot down to Yoshi's for what will surely be another in a long line of stellar performances.
George Duke
with Mike Manson, Jef Lee Johnson and Ronald Brunner
Yoshi's on Fillmore
Feb 14, 2008 - Feb 17, 2008
All shows $28 & $32
