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Features The Duke Of Jazz Monday, March 03, 2008 Jazz Legends George Duke And Stanley Clarke Will Be Here For Bluesfest. By Brian Wise
One of the fringe benefits of the Bluesfest season is that it brings us acts from different genres that we otherwise might not get to see. A few years ago jazz legend Pharoah Sanders appeared in the Crossroads tent to an adoring and somewhat amazed audience. It was one of those inspired bookings that helps give the festival its character.
This year Bluesfest and other venues will be graced by some more jazz legends working together in the form of bassist Stanley Clarke and keyboard genius George Duke.
Both players have well-established and impressive jazz credentials but they have also branched out into other areas and projects that make them a compelling double bill. Clarke has worked with Jeff Beck and was a member of Keith Richards’ New Barbarians while Duke has played with Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention, George Clinton and even Flora Purim.
The just-turned 62 year-old Duke made somewhat of a name for himself early in his career by working with Zappa, who provided a demanding but rewarding apprenticeship.
“I had dreams but I wasn’t really sure until I got hired by Frank Zappa that I could even make it in the business,” says Duke, on the line from America to talk about the forthcoming tour. “I figured if he hired me I must have something, so maybe I could make a living doing this in performing as opposed to teaching. I was teaching school for a while when I was young. In fact, that’s the only time I’ve been in Australia, was with Frank Zappa.”
And it was when he was with Frank Zappa that I saw Duke on that first visit to Australia over 30 years ago! I distinctly recall the concert at Melbourne’s Festival Hall (where The Beatles played in 1964) because Zappa kept stopping this ‘jazzier version of The Mothers’ (as Duke calls them) - which also included Jean-Luc Ponty - and making them start again. Frank seemed like a hard taskmaster.
“He had a lot of expectations and he expected his band to deliver,” responds Duke when I tell him of my recollections. (And frankly, I am amazed I remember anything that far back!). “We had to deliver, that’s all there was to it. We had to be funny and at the same time we had to be very serious musicians - and that’s kind of hard sometimes. You had to kind of get into Frank’s world. He was a hard taskmaster but he wanted his music performed correctly.”
“I’ll leyou in on a secret,” confides Duke when I mention Frank continually stopping the band. “It happened to me once where he stopped because I made a mistake. If you’d seen him you’d know he had that finger, he would put his whole arm down and all the band stopped and he’d say, ‘George made a mistake.’ And they were like, ‘Oh Frank, come on man.’ So he’d say, ‘George is going to play it by himself.’
“So I wound up playing this little piece of music by myself and I got through it okay and hen the next time I played it correctly. I tell you and he never called me out again I was always prepared after that.”
By the time he joined Zappa’s band Duke had obtained a bachelor's degree in music from the San Francisco Conservatory in 1967, but working with Zappa proved to be a fine training ground for the young keyboard player who would soon go on to prove himself one of the greatest exponents of all time – jazz or rock.
“It was the best,” he agrees. “You see Frank was highly intelligent and at the same time he was a great musician and he was really just totally consumed with music, every aspect of it: the business, the recording, the performance of it. So I got to see all of that. He challenged me. It’s not like I could just rest on… ‘Well I’ve been to school and I’ve leant all these jazz licks and I can play some classical music’ and I can rest on that. No! He says, ‘I need you to sing, I need you to synthesize and I was like a synthesizer.’
“So there were a lot of things that were firsts for me that happened through Frank - by just pushing me to become a well-rounded musician. At the same time [it was] teaching me it was okay to have a sense of humour and let your personality out and you can still be heavy. When he told me, ‘You don’t have to be heavy to be heavy,’ I said, ‘Whoa! He’s laying some of that Zappa cosmic debris on me.”
That Zappa cosmic debris included a prolific recording career and pioneering artistic independence that was years ahead of its time.
“He was totally amazing and obviously became a hero of mine,” says Duke. “Obviously I didn’t continue with that style of music but what I learned and garnered from that experience really set the tone for the rest of my life. Always look forward and invest in yourself and continually change the music. It doesn’t always have to be the same and doesn’t have to be commercial. He proved to me - along with Miles Davis and a lot of other people - that you don’t necessarily have to bow down to make a good living at what you’re doing and I wasn’t sure about that. You give the people what they want but sometimes you give them what they need”
Duke appeared on some classic Zappa albums including 200 Motels, Apostrophe, One Size Fits All, Bongo Fury and Roxy & Elsewhere. In the years since Duke has worked with Stanley Clarke (who has become a long-time collaborator), Jean-Luc Ponty, Billy Cobham, Cannonball Adderley, Dianne Reeves, George Clinton, Steps Ahead and many more. He was producer and composer for tracks on the late-era Miles Davis albums: ‘Backyard Ritual’ (Tutu, 1986) and ‘Cobra’ (Amandla, 1989). Duke has also worked with a number of notable Brazilian musicians, including singer Milton Nasciemento, percussionist Airto Moreira and singer Flora Purim.
Duke was musical director at the Nelson Mandela tribute concert at Wembley Stadium, London in 1988 and in 1989, he temporarily replaced Marcus Miller as musical director of NBC America’s Sunday Night program.
But there is also an even more contemporary connection to Duke’s work. His ‘I Love You More’ was sampled by Daft Punk for their hit ‘Digital Love.’ ‘Guilty’ was sampled by Mylo in his song ‘Guilty of Love.’ ‘For Love’ was sampled by MF Doom in ‘I Hear Voices’ and ‘Someday’ was sampled by Common in ‘Break My Heart.’
For the Australian tour Duke is teamed with long-time friend and collaborator, bassist Stanley Clarke, with whom he has recorded three albums. This year they also visit Africa and Russia so we are lucky to have them here for a brief tour.
“We’ll actually do some stuff of mine and some things from Stanley’s solo project,” says Duke, “so it’s kind of a hodgepodge of stuff. Plus we have the more funky stuff, the electric stuff, then usually in the middle of the show we have an acoustic set were Stanley picks up the upright bass I go on the piano. So it’s really 360 degrees of music. That’s what we’re know for we give them everything.Read the full story in March Rhythms.
Jazz legends George Duke and Stanley Clarke play Byron Bluesfest plus Sydney Opera House on March 22 & The Prince Of Wales, Melbourne on March 24.
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