Concert: George Duke

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Book your tickets online for that soulful music that will rendered by none other than the synthesizer and piano player George Duke.

George is the piano and synthesizer pioneer. Born in San Rafael in California, in Marin City. He developed a passion for the pianos when he was just 4 years old when his mother took him to see Duke Ellington in a concert. Nevertheless, he began his piano lesson right from the age of seven absorbing the roots of Black music in his local Baptist church. 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. He then attended San Francisco Conservatory of Music with major in trombone and composition, as well as a minor in contrabass from and got his Bachelor of Music degree in 1967. Later he also received Masters Degree in composition from San Francisco State University. He also 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.

George and a young singer named Al Jarreau formed a group which became the house band at San Francisco's Half Note Club. 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 trio that emerged from those sessions was soon earning fame in the jazz world. They toured Europe and made an appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival. Their's first gig in a rock-oriented venue came in early 1969, in a club in Los Angeles called Thee Experience. In attendance were Cannonball Adderly, Quincy Jones, Frank Zappa. The crowd was spell-bound by their performance 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 and toured for an entire year.

In the year 1971, he joined the group of veteran Jazz man Julian "Cannonball" Adderly, when George was invited by the latter. While he was in the group, he had the opportunity to work with Nancy Wilson, Joe Williams, Dizzy Gillespie. In a festival in Pori Finland where he was invited to play, he heard Stanley Clarke with Chick Corea and was amazed. The 70's were filled with musical experimentation with all of these great musicians and more. In 1973, George again joined Zappa and brought Jean-Luc Ponty with him and stayed together for the next three years. Duke left and joined drummer Billy Cobham and formed a powerhouse jazz fusion that became more popular and influential than the earlier Duke/Ponty group. In 1976, George Duke became a solo artist. He released a series of fusion-oriented LP's such as his debut CBS LP, From Me To You that earned him recognition and he reached the upper reaches of the charts, from small clubs to large arenas.

In the late '70s, George decided to get into producing as a career. George began by producing the Brazilian instrumentalist Raoul de Souza, then made his first vocal album with singer Dee Dee Bridgewater. His breakthrough came with an album by A Taste Of Honey. The single, "Sukiyaki," went to Number 1 on the pop, adult contemporary, and R&B charts, ultimately selling over two million copies. He went on to produce three albums for Jeffrey Osborne, including the Top Ten pop singles

"Stay With Me Tonight" and "On The Wings Of Love" and two best-sellers for Deniece Williams including her across-the-board number one smash "Let's Hear It For The Boy" and the chart-topping R&B single "Do What You Feel". He also wrote and produced the number one single "Sweet Baby" for his own recording with Stanley Clarke. By the end of 1988, he had produced four songs for Smokey Robinson and several songs for saxophonist George Howard. His other production projects included the number one chart hit "Call Me" by Phil Perry and several songs for Miles Jaye, vocalist Dianne Reeves, The Pointer Sisters, 101 North, Najee, Jeffrey Osborne, Take 6, Howard Hewett, Chante Moore, Everette Harp, Rachelle Ferrell and, most recently, Gladys Knight, Keith Washington, Filipino star Gary Valenciano, Johnny Gill and Anita Baker. George Duke made his debut on Elektra in February, 1985 with the Latin-flavored Thief In The Night. A second album, simply titled George Duke, was issued in August 1986, followed by Night After Night, George Duke's final release for Elektra.

Apart from this, he was also the music director for numerous artists and television specials, including the Soul Train Music Awards (nine years), NBC's Sunday Night Show and Anita Baker (Duke took Anita and a 14-piece band to Washington D.C. to perform at the Kennedy Center for The Democratic National Committee). He served as musical director for Disney's concert to benefit the Foundation for Pediatric AIDS For Our Children (featuring an all-star cast that included Michael Bolton, Paula Abdul and Kris Kross) and Disney's Salute To Youth during the President's Inaugural celebration. In '92, he went to Spain to be music director for the largest guitar festival in history, featuring such artists as George Benson, Stanley Clarke, Larry Coryell, Paco de Lucia, Rickie Lee Jones and John McLaughlin.

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.

Duke has also established a reputation for television and film scoring work with The Five Heartbeats film soundtrack, the title song for the movie Karate Kid III, music for Paramount Pictures Leap Of Faith and Meteor Man, and NBC's Leeza and Marilu daytime talk shows.

He gave live performances in January 2001 include Las Vegas, Vale, Colorado and a week at Catalina's Bar and Grill in Los Angeles. George also began work on a flag song for the Arthritis Association featuring artists such as Steven Seagal, Donnie McClurkin, Bonny James and more. George's CD Cool, is nominated for a Grammy and an Image award. While not winning either, George did win a Grammy for producing the Best Jazz Vocal Album In The Moment for Dianne Reeves. In the year 2002 George performed in a concert that was a part of Wave for Peace, to raise money for the victims of the WTC incident.

George received the coveted Edison Life Time Achievement Award in Rotterdam in November. January 2005, he served as artist and MD for a special series of concerts in India featuring Al Jarreau, Stanley Clarke, Earl Klugh, L Subramanium and Ravi Coltrane. BET and MTV India documented some of the shows. At a New Years Eve fundraiser, George saluted the Symphonic Jazz Orchestra with his jazz trio at the Bakery. Brain Bromberg was on bass and Terri Lyne Carrington was the drummer. A week later, Duke was in the studio with this band recording his new jazz CD for release in June 2006. At the end of January another project took place in Nassau, the Bahamas for the Michael Jordan