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George Duke

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Musician

The Resume

    (January 12, 1946-August 5, 2013)
    Born in San Rafael, California
    Jazz-fusion musician, singer and composer
    Played keyboards, contrabass and trombone
    Performed with Frank Zappa on the albums '200 Motels' (1971), 'Waka/Jawaka' (1972), 'Over-Nite Sensation' (1973), 'Apostrophe (')' (1974), 'Roxy and Elsewhere' (1974), 'One Size Fits All' (1975), 'Bongo Fury' (1975), 'Studio Tan' (1978), 'Sleep Dirt' (1979) and 'Them and Us' (1984)
    Recorded the solo albums 'The George Duke Quartet Presented by the Jazz Workshop' (1966), 'Save the Country' (1970), 'Solus' (1971), 'The Inner Source' (1971), 'Feel' (1974), 'The Aura Will Prevail' (1974), 'Liberated Fantasies' (1976), 'The Dream' (1976), 'From Me To You' (1977), 'Reach For It' (1977), 'Don't Let Go' (1978), 'Master of the Game' (1979), 'Brazilian Fantasies' (1980), 'The Clarke/Duke Project' (with Stanley Clarke, 1981), 'The Clarke/Duke Project 2' (1983), 'Rendezvous' (1984), 'Thief in the Night' (1985), 'Night After Night' (1989), 'The Clarke/Duke Project 3' (1990), 'Muir Woods Suite' (1996), 'After Hours' (1998), 'Face the Music' (2002), 'Deja Vu' (2010) and 'Dreamweaver' (2013)

Why he might be annoying:

    He played a keytar.
    Some of his late-70s funk singles, like 'Reach For It' and 'Dukey Stick,' sound like P-Funk clones.
    After playing one of his funk songs, he was booed off the stage of the Berlin Jazz Festival (1979).
    He noted that jazz critic Leonard Feather 'quit writing about me. He just chalked it up as a loss for jazz.'
    He complained about hip-hop artists sampling his songs, 'When they run out of music to sample -- and they will; they've sampled 'Reach For It' at least twenty times already -- then what are they going to do?'

Why he might not be annoying:

    He was eclectic, playing jazz, funk, rock and Brazilian music.
    One critic claimed, 'He virtually invented how to use the synthesizer in a jazz-rock context.'
    P-Funk leader George Clinton showed there were no hard feelings by presenting Duke with a 'license to funk.'
    He produced the hits 'Sukiyaki' for A Taste of Honey, 'Stay with Me Tonight' for Jeffrey Osbourne and 'Let's Hear It for the Boy' for Deniece Williams.
    He was music director for the Freedomfest tribute concert to Nelson Mandela at Wembley Stadium in London (1988).
    He said, 'I really think it's possible to make good music and be commercial at the same time.... Art for art's sake is nice, but if art doesn't communicate then its worth is negated.'

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 3 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 7 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 36 Votes: 27.78% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 2 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 3 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 5 Votes: 40.0% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 12 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 16 Votes: 43.75% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 86 Votes: 63.95% Annoying