Another Legend Lost – George Duke Did It All!

On August 6th, just a few weeks after the release of his latest album “Dreamweaver”, keyboard legend George Duke passed away. Duke’s career spanned four decades, and few artists contributed to a broader range of musical genres. He began his career working with jazz fusion pioneers including Jean-Luc Ponty and Franz Zappa, collaborated with a variety of other jazz greats including Miles Davis, played on Michael Jackson’s breakthrough album “Off the Wall”, and produced songs for Smokey Robinson, Gladys Night, and Natalie Cole.

The brief interview in the clip below includes a few snippets from tunes on “Dreamweaver”, and it gives you an idea of what a lovely man Duke was. Listen to full tracks from “Dreamweaver” at George’s Website

Sample Duke’s jazz fusion chops in this live performance from the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1976 with Billy Cobham on drums, John Schofield on Guitar and Alphonso Johnson on Bass (thanks for the link Rainer!). Duke gets his solo 3:45 into the track.

And finally here’s the highest charting single of Duke’s career, 1981’s “Sweet Baby”.

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Joe Robinson – Up and Comer from Down Under

A few weeks ago we wrote about one of the world’s guitar legends, Tommy Emmanuel, from Australia. Turns out Tommy has been mentoring a young countryman named Joe Robinson for over a decade, and the results of studying under the master clearly show.

Robinson has won a string of awards, both in his home country and internationally (check out his Wikipedia page Joe Robinson), and his relationship to Emmanuel really came through when he won “Australia’s Got Talent” at age 16. His performances included a Beatles medley and an arrangement of Mason William’s 1968 multi-Grammy winning “Classical Gas”. Compare Robinson’s Beatles medley to Emmanuel’s in our earlier post, and watch both the master and the student cover “Classical Gas”.

But lest we leave the impression that Robinson simply hews closely to the style of his teacher, here are two examples of Joe’s other dimensions – “Out Alive” and “Lethal Injection” (which also features fine bass work from Bernard Harris), both from his 2012 album “Let Me Introduce You”.

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RIP J.J. Cale – Songwriter, Musician and Clapton Collaborator

J.J. Cale passed away at age 74 on July 26th. The generally reclusive artist is best known for writing songs that became hits for Eric Clapton, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Waylon Jennings and others. His four decades of connections to Eric Clapton, though, were certainly his deepest and most successful.

Cale penned two of Clapton’s earliest solo hits, “After Midnight” from Clapton’s 1970 solo debut and the iconic “Cocaine” from Clapton’s second solo album “Slowhand”.

In 2006 Cale and Clapton recorded the Grammy winning album “The Road to Escondido”, which featured Cale’s songwriting and a Who’s Who of collaborators. This album is real gem, and “Danger” is the opening track.

Cale’s latest contribution to the long-term partnership was the tune “Angel” that appears on Clapton’s 2013 album “Old Sock”.

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Bernhoft and Kimbra Demonstrate the Art of the Live Loop

Fans of Conan O’Brien just got introduced to soul singer and one-man band, Bernhoft. After fronting a couple of bands between 1996 and 2005, the Norwegian released his first solo album in 2008. His performances center around recording a series of backing loops, sometimes on multiple instruments, to sing and play guitar over. Check out the totally entertaining “Cmon Talk” as well as the live version of “Sunday”.

Another artist who makes use of loops, more focused on vocals, is Kimbra. She got a lot of exposure in 2012 accompanying Gotye on his Grammy Record of the Year “Somebody That I Used To Know”, but her vocal range and stylistic range are much broader. Check out these two numbers and hang with the idiosynchratic “Settle Down”.

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What Do Martin Taylor, Joe Pass, Fred and Ginger, and Brian Wilson Have in Common?

Artists across generations and musical styles can always be united by great songs. And no American songs have shown longer lasting and broader appeal than those of George and Ira Gershwin.

Last week’s post on Tommy Emmanuel also featured British jazz guitar virtuoso Martin Taylor. A quick search on YouTube uncovers Taylor’s version of the Gershwin brothers’ standard “They Can’t Take That Away From Me”. If you’d like to skip over the interview, the performance starts at 3:12.

One of Taylor’s influences is the late Joe Pass, icon of the chord/melody style of jazz guitar that Martin plays. Enjoy Pass’ version of the same song from a 1992 performance.

The song was introduced in the 1937 movie “Shall We Dance” starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rodgers. The clip below is a real treat. It starts with Fred singing the song to Ginger in “Shall We Dance” and ends with them dancing to the song a dozen years later in their last movie together “The Barkleys of Broadway”.