Customer Reviews

Deja Vu

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

All i can say is listen young folks! This is real music. Can you hear it? I always have been a fan of duke, he is a GReat producer, writer, and singer! From the first song i was hooked, (A Melody) is now one of my favorites. No real words but vocals and music are just amazing! This is the Duke we loved from his Snapshot days! Buy it and put this on at night with your lover! A glass of wine that is all you need. No words need to be said. Thank you George Duke!

Considering the all out funk assault of his previous album Dukey Treats it's not a big surprise that his following release. His independantly released BPM albums from 2003 have all been extremely high quality and varied in their flavor and this album continues very much in that vein. Aside from Everett Harp,Paul Jackson and Hubert Laws most the musicians here aren't quite as well known. The idea of this music wouldn't appear to be about creating any kind of supergroup of already established name but,as the description of this album here on Amazon.com indicates to return work to the world of primarily instrumental jazz. That's not to say it's a retro excersise and neither is it clished smooth jazz. On some of the vocal numbers such as "Bring Me Joy" and "6 O'Clock Revisited" there is a definate sense of mingling a light groove with a strong jazzy sense. And that sense is something that really permeates most of the album. Songs such as "A Melody","Oh Really" and "Stupid Is As Stupid Does" all look to George Duke's fusion flavors more than his funk flavors and even though there's a distinct combination of the two they are both seperate styles of playing in many ways;one is slicker and the other tends to be faster and more bombastic. The one thing that actually helps the fusion jazz oriented numbers here from being too over the top is the fact that Duke comes at them with something of a funk styled approch which marked many of his classic album masterpieces such as Feel. The reason I deduct one star for this album is the fact this album is lacking to a fairly large degree on the melody department. On songs that spin out from fusion to funk such as "You Touch My Brain" it's on full demonstration for all to see but other times the instrumentatal work is more paramount than melody and harmonic construction and I know from his long career Duke is more than capable of bringing all of this together. More over this album is vital mood music even if the melodies are a lot less evident than would be expected from Duke. In terms of material he's still in a class all by himself and always will be. And more albums of this style would be welcome in the future as long as more carefully crafts his melodic themes before improvising on them.

George Duke, who always seems to put out good albums, (I own most of them) has released a great album in "Deja Vu". Thre's great playing, great production, and diverse styling in the compositions. One of the things that I've always admired about George is his commitment to being authentic to every genre that he plays. There is never any pretentiousness in anything that he plays. Thanks, George, for consistantly being true to the music.

I've been following George Duke for some time now. (I'm talking about high school days. Class of 1979, with Albums (thats right I said albums) like "Feel",from "1973" "Snapshot" from "1992", Live on Tour in Europe with Billy Cobham & George Duke, and todays mp3 D'eja'Vu 2010. Love the music George. Please don't every stop making it.

I've been a George Duke enthusiast for about as long as I've been married - 30 years. His music seems to improve with time! This project is sweet!

Mr Duke with this Remembrance for Miles Davis needs a presence in the next Cd by Mr Duke! A CD, very nicely put together. A strong Revival to George Duke, ways that take me back to his "roots"! Thank you Mr George Duke! very impressive with great jazz and Rhythm work that will keep me coming back to George Duke!

Thank you Mr Duke,

Great driving music along with the "Cut" to Miles Davis makes my day!

...I'm just going to say, So glad he's still on the scene and still doing it.
I would in no way call this smooth Jazz. It's more than that, THIS IS beautiful music - a well crafted album of funk & soul fused with jazz from Mr Duke.

There's not much that George Duke can do that I won't absolutely love and Deja Vu is no exception. There's familiarity in the songs that remind me of Guardian of the Light, Snapshot and Master of the Game when he played the mini-moog and some of the other electronics. What I really love about George is his ability to put the some of the coldest transitions in a song right at a moment when most people would not expect. I say most, because I've listened to everything George has done since 1976 and those transitions are quite familiar to me. Nonetheless it's still the most amazing auditory journey for me whenever I listen to George. The most exceptional thing about Deja Vu are the sprinklings of fusion throughout. It's truly amazing to me when George moves around in an arrangement in this way. Most notable songs; #5 Ripple in Time - Brashear's horn playing sounds so much like Miles Davis, I had to do a double take; #6 Oh Really - old gym socks funk....it's just plain ole funky; #3 What Goes Around Comes Around - nice blend of fusion, sweet transitions, nice song. I actually enjoyed all of the other songs as well and I'm very thankful the Duke is still making great music.

P.S. I gave it a 4.5 instead of 5 because it only had 10 songs....

This is a pleasant enough cd, but I surely wouldn't call it a throwback to the funk of "the day" I just didn't feel much funk with it at all, just smooth jazz.