Tag Archives: r&b

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”.

Buy Music:

Daft Punk, Pharrell and Nile Rodgers Get Lucky

One of 2013’s most anticipated releases is Daft Punk’s “Random Access Memories” due out May 21st. The last album by the French electronic duo was “Alive 2007” which featured the track “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger”. Both the track and the album won Grammy’s.

The first track released from “Random Access Memories” is “Get Lucky” featuring Pharrell Williams and legend Nile Rodgers. Watch the teaser video, then listen to the whole pristine production.

Singer, songwriter, rapper, fashion designer Pharrell Williams provides the vocals on “Get Lucky”. Pharrell (accent on the second syllable) is maybe best known as a producer, helping to assemble tracks for half the names in hip hop. Among his latest production credits was Frank Ocean’s 2012 album “Channel Orange” (see our earlier post Frank Ocean’s and Stevie Wonder’s Best Albums).

Nile Rodgers, who brings the funky guitar work on “Get Lucky”, has the same broad set of talents as Pharrell on a grander scale spanning nearly five decades. His production credits are completely ridiculous (click on the Wikipedia link here Nile Rodgers to read about them), and as a member of Chic he played on one of the best selling singles of all time “Le Freak”.

Buy music:

Frank Ocean’s and Stevie Wonder’s Best Albums

“It’s the future of soul music being invented in real time” said Rolling Stone of Frank Ocean’s second album “Channel Orange”.  Seems that others agree, voting it Best Urban Contemporary Album at the 2013 Grammy Awards.  Ocean performed the track “Thinkin Bout You” backed by a trippy guitar arrangement (that looks like John Mayer in the shadows, stage right) on Saturday Night Live.   See if you find some similarities to “Visions” from 1974’s Grammy winner for Best Album, Stevie Wonder’s “Innervisions”.

If you like “Innervisions” era Stevie Wonder, you’ll probably also like the arrangement of Ocean’s “Sweet Life”.

Buy music:

Allen Stone and Daryl Hall Bring Blue-eyed Soul

The buzz about Seattle blue-eyed soul singer Allen Stone is growing by the day.  He’s just been signed by Dave Matthews’ ATO records, and he’s been making the late night TV circuit.  Enjoy the living room performance of “Unaware” from his 2012 self-titled CD, then watch him perform with blue-eyed soul icon Daryl Hall on Hall’s web series “Live at Daryl’s House” (the link will take you to episode 59, then pull up “Celebrate Tonight” from the menu).

http://www.livefromdarylshouse.com/currentep.html?ep_id=74

And if you’d like to hear what Daryl was doing in his 20’s, listen to “Sara Smile” from the 1975 album “Daryl Hall and John Oates”.

Buy Music