Has anyone seen George Duke live in recent years?

[Hot Ptah]

George Duke is the last performer on Saturday night at Kansas City's Rhythm and Ribs Festival, at 18th and Vine.

I suspect that his live sets may not be that interesting these days. Has anyone seen him live in recent years? Is it worth waiting around to see him live, or not?

[Kari S]

I think he's been doing the Clarke Duke band lately, and at least that sucks beyond words I guess it depends what you're looking for, but of course it goes without saying you have to be interested in the direction his music has taken these days.

He's still very much in touch with his past and certainly has the chops, but he has been leaning towards the smooth a bit too much.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDPMsh1wkBM

[Hot Ptah]

I got back about an hour and a half ago from the show. George Duke played 1970s style fusion, contemporary R&B and old school funk. There wasn't too much that was "smooth". There was a lot of hard funk playing. The beginning of the show featured the most ambitious fusion compositions. He played some tasty jazz solos on an electric keyboard array, some of which was programmed to sound like an electric piano. Those solos reminded me very much of his solos with Frank Zappa when I saw them live together in the fall of 1974. Since I had always thought of those 1974 solos fondly, I have to give Duke credit for playing like that again now. There was no acoustic piano playing, but the guy can really play jazz.

Some of the show was commercialized vocal work, but it was melodic and for what it was, it was listenable.

The last section of the show was wild funk playing, with Duke wailing on a small electronic keyboard he held in his hands. This was far from smooth jazz. He included some James Brown compositions.

The crowd loved it, and there was much vocal enthuiasm from members of the African American community, which attended in large numbers. (There were several thousand people at this outdoor concert).

It was not an acoustic jazz concert, but it was not bad either. It may not have been a jazz purist's cup of tea, but Duke was sincere in what he was doing, and he and the band played their butts off.

Edited June 15, 2008 by Hot Ptah