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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
This is probably the legendary jazz virtuoso's best album in quite a long time., September 30, 2008
The veteran keyboard/piano Master and producer (Anita Baker, Regina Belle, Rachelle Ferrell, Dianne Reeves, Marilyn Scott, Flora Purim...) returns with a very solid offering.
This is an album that is closest to his late 70's Epic albums (Reach for It, Dukey Stick etc..).
He surrounds himself with friends old and new on this set, including Sheila E. on percussion and backing vocals, a full horn section (including Michael "Patches" Stewart on trumpet and saxophonist Everette Harp), Jef Lee Johnson and Ray Fuller on guitars, and vocalists DeeDee Foster, Josie James, and Lynn Davis, as well as guest appearances by Leon "Ndugu" Chancler, Vinnie Colaiuta on drums, Wah Wah Watson, Lenny Castro on percussion, Christan McBride, Wayman Tisdale amd Michael Manson on bass and vocalists Rachelle Ferrell, Lynne Fiddmont, Teena Marie, Terry Dexter, Howard Hewett, Jonathan Butler.
A crowd-pleaser with a warm personality, he also has a serious side, and the dozen new songs here show the breadth of his artistry and awareness.
Tracks like "Everyday Hero" and the slowish masterpiece "Dukey Treats" have that P Funk tinged sound.
"Mercy" is a classic Jazz Funk style groove with a wicked instrumental break and keyboard solo following the vocal duet.
The complex instrumental "Images Of Us" is slightly more leftfield but is another Jazz Funk groover.
The gentler "I Tired To Tell You" and "Listen Baby" contrast with the frenetic Funk, as does the EWF sounding "Are You Ready".
Also on the mid-tempo side check "Somebody Laid It On Us" or the message based "Sudan", an indictment of the horrors of Darfur.
This is probably the best George Duke album for some time.
My favourite tracks: "Images Of Us", "Everyday Hero" and "Listen Baby".
"Dukey Treats" debuts at # 1 of The Billboard Top Contemporary Jazz chart and # 192 of The Billboard 200 Chart.
Issue Date: 2008-9-13
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
What could have been..., November 16, 2008
This record is a great example of an artist who can still do what they did back in the day but doesn't doesn't want to be known for only that (no matter how good it was) and is straddling the fence now to please any number of audiences.
All the way through this record it sounded like Duke, but not really, pulling his punches, going into the too-smooth bag of tricks. That Duke piled together members of his old 70s collective into the studio to get down does give the record some nostalgic edge, but it ends up being like funky icing on a plain cake. The songs don't really groove, the band does, and that's unfortunate. Everyone's still got the chops, but they're working with material that is either too straight or so self-referential that it sounds like Duke b-sides. Duke has always played with a mutlitude of genres but his best records have always come from a focus on one at a time, maybe inserting apopular single in the mix for kicks (see "Master of the Game", "Muir Woods Suite" or "Reach For It").
And then the last track comes on, "Images of Us", and it's wonderful. A whole record of THAT and I'd have been running in the streets, talking about how Duke has returned from the mountaintop. Unfortunately, you have to go through a record made up of all of the directions that Duke has ever taken us to get to that one, honest track. This isn't a return to form so much as it is an homage to form, and jazz is sick with that mindset these days. I almost wish he hadn't put that last great track on; now I'll just wonder what could have been.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
up to date yet retro, November 23, 2008
This is one of his finest. It's up to date yet you get those retro vibes from the 70's. Great music.
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