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>I'm sure there had to be one and I missed it
but I've never got a problem with George Duke Appreciation.
I was exposed first and foremost to his work on Epic/CBS in the mid-late '70s and in the '80s; one of our the first CDs we ever had in our home was The Clarke/Duke Project. I used to be fascinated by the sound of those songs, but I -really- didn't appreciate that until I was much older and got to explore his catalog for myself.
But Dukey has an extensive catalog as we all know. Personally, I'm a HUGE fan of his MPS material (The Inner Source, Faces In Reflection, Feel, The Aura Will Prevail I Love The Blues...She Heard My Cry, even Liberated Fantasies). You can throw the 1976 Solo Keyboard Album in that lot too, even though I think Epic actually released that for him in '82.
As for his Epic/CBS era. '77-82 is the best to me. HUGE fan of Brazilian Love Affair, as it brings together the two worlds of Dukey. And I can't believe I heard "Brazilian Sugar" in Dead or Alive: Xtreme Beach Volleyball of all video games. The title track is my favorite piece from that album.
Guardian Of The Light was made when Dukey was really heavy into his production work, and I felt he brought his "export sound" back home, with an intent to crossover. As a result it's not as strong as the albums prior but there's still some cuts. As an R&B and Funk artist I think he was heavily influenced by Bootsy and EWF, even going so far to imitate them a lil too much. No surprise he went on to produce Philip Bailey though.
In the '90s after coming back with Stanley Clarke for Clarke/Duke 3, he dropped another Jazz/R&B classic in SNAPSHOT. I really mess with ILLUSIONS too.
Poppa Claw was a huge Dukey fan, and kept up with his music -- so I always was up on what he had out. Only thing I haven't really explored is MUIR WOODS SUITE but as we have the bits of "Tzina" scattered about I always wondered how that would turn out.
Dukey is one of the most identifiable keyboardists, particularly on synthesizer. He really made his presence felt there.
He's also one of the most candid when it comes to his own career. If you go to www.georgeduke.com, you'll see he has detailed reviews of everything he's ever recorded (even admitting the stuff he thought was silly or ill-conceived) sheet music, links to buy his long OOP albums (years ago, I bought his first Epic album, FROM ME TO YOU, and FOLLOW THE RAINBOW direct from his site... and they were straight-from-Sony remasters... DIRT CHEAP compared to what you'd pay for the Japanese imports).
My favorite Duke songs tend to skew toward his R&B side, but I fool with a lot of his instrumentals.
"Mr. McFreeze"
"Brazilian Love Affair"
"Dawn"
"For Love (I Come My Friend)"
"Rashid"
"Love"
"Someday"
"Just For You"
"I Want You For Myself"
"Straight From The Heart"
"Starting Again"
"You (Are The Light)"
"Al-Mustafa The Beloved" (w/Billy Cobham)
"Touch and Go" (w/Stanley Clarke)
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