FunkFreak75 The peak of George Duke's solo Jazz-Rock Fusion work.

1. "The Opening" (3:18) rollicking RTF-like racing music.. (8.875/10)

2. "Capricorn" (5:06) bluesy like a slavery field work song. I can feel the deep emotions being released. (8.875/10)

3. "Piano Solo No 1+2" (2:21) not really the piano I was expecting: a strangely electrified piano and … piano? Nice music. Part two is definitely different and yet clearly a continuation of the same sound(s). (4.33333/5)

4. "Psychosomatic Dung" (5:03) funky schlock that will become all the rage within the next three years minus all the dynamics from the rhythm section. Ndugu gets some shine in the fourth minute before George lets loose on the wah-wah clavinet and Fender Rhodes. (8.75/10)

5. "Faces In Reflection No.1" (Instrumental) (3:37) nice foundation with some excellent soloing and sound use but lacking fullness and development. (Perhaps George should've had one more collaborator). Probably one of my top three songs. (8.875/10)

6. "Maria Tres Filhos" (5:09) this one not only sounds like a Chick Corea song, it may be! (It isn't: it's written by the great Brazilian songwriter Milton Nacimento.) Nice percussive work throughout from Ndugu but even more so during his extended solo in the fourth minute. (8.75/10)

7. "North Beach" (6:26) a long keyboard solo that sounds like wah-pedal rhythm guitar play and a bunch of sound effects. It's actually kind of cool. (8.875/10)

8. "Da Somba" (6:18) a song that races along on the power of the collective energy of all three highly-attuned musicians. John Heard's extended bass solo pales when compared to other contemporary bass players like Stanley Clarke, Buster Williams, Ron Carter, or Eddie Gomez. (8.75/10)

9. "Faces In Reflection No.2" (Vocal) (2:19) a final vocal supporting song--the tension here is quite cool--making the listener crave for more. My favorite piece on the album. (5/5)

Total time 39:37

Clearly influenced by Chick Corea's RETURN TO FOREVER releases, there is no arguing with George Duke's talent and skill. The biggest issues I have with the music on this album are in the sound recording and reproduction department as well as in the area of composition. Perhaps George needed an escape from the crazy control that was even the world of Frank Zappa. The heavy sound effects used on bassist John Heard's double bass seem to mimic those of RTF bass player STANLEY CLARKE. Leon "Ndugu" Chancler's drum playing is quite good but the sound engineering of his drums (not cymbals) suffers from a murky-muted compressed feel.

B+/four stars; an excellent addition to any Jazz-Rock Fusion lover's music collection. Definitely an album that gets better with repeated listens.

FunkFreak75 George's second solo studio album release of 1974, this one containing a few guests who were not present on Faces in Reflection.

Line-up / Musicians: - George Duke / keyboards, synth bass (1,5,9), vocals (2,4,10) With: - Flora Purim / vocals (8) - Frank Zappa / guitar (2,6) - John Heard / bass, double bass - Leon "Ndugu" Chancler / drums & percussion (3) - Airto Moreira / percussion

1. "Funny Funk" (5:18) George experimenting with more new sounds. (8.75/10)

2. "Love" (6:06) a partly vocal song featuring Frank Zappa using Ernie Isley's guitar tone. (8.75/10)

3. "The Once Over" (4:39) a spacey, moody HERBIE HANCOCK-like start before a mood change occurs in the second minute prompting a reset into rhythm-oriented foundation. The return to reverberating Fender Rhodes chords at 2:20 is interesting, but it remains a percussionist's song until its RTF-like final second flourish. (8.875/10)

4. "Feel" (5:40) more vocals--this time with electric piano and synths backing them. At the end of the first minute the rhythm section joins in as George flies through a short but effective synth solo. Then we settle into a gentle, syrupy pop song that predicts the smooth R&B jazz pop music of GEORGE BENSON, NARADA MICHAEL WALDEN, and MICHAEL FRANKS. More extraordinary synth soloing over the Fender Rhodes-led rhythm track. Definitely a top three song despite its lack of jazz orientation. (9/10)

5. "Cora Joberge" (3:50) dynamic electric piano with delay effect eventually gets support from flourishes from synth and drums before funkified bass and steady cymbal play join in. Poor recording of "dirty" effected electric piano. There are parts of this that remind me of Terry Riley or somebody else in the pioneering phase of electronic keyboards. (8.75/10)

6. "Old Slipper" (5:41) funky jam with multiple keys filling the sonic field as well as serving as lead instruments. The multiple personalities of George Duke! Perfect syncopated support from Ndugu and John. Interesting but not very noteworthy. An unstable" synth note introduced around the three-minute mark signals the upcoming transition into a proggy and then Parliamentarian passage--the latter of which find Frank Zappa's very-distorted guitar jumping in and shredding away. (8.75/10)

7. "Tzina "(2:01) dreamy/spacey keyboard play from multiple keyboard instruments/tracks (including some strings emulator) results in a kind of cinematic interlude. (4.375/5)

8. "Yana Aminah" (4:33) Airto's wife, Flora Purim, graces this Latin song with her vocal tracks, singing in English. Too bad the lyrics weren't more poetic nor the layered vocal tracks more polished and better synchronized. Overall this sounds very much like a song Stevie Wonder would have written for his wife, Syreeta Wright. Still, it's a pretty decent song; George could very easily have had a career in writing/producing pop songs. (8.75/10)

9. "Rashid" (3:36) starts out as a KOOL & THE GANG or CAMEO kind of funk song, then turns a sharp left at 1:49 onto a speedway for a hyperspeed synth solo that plays out for the rest of the song. (8.66667/10)

10. "Statement" (1:15) another pretty little cinematic interlude sounding like something from Patrick Moraz's solo album, I. (4.5/5)

Total time 42:39

More of the same sound issues I had with Goerge's previous album (from the same year). I have to say that there has been a slight improvement in performance contribution from both Ndugu and John Heard.

B/four stars; another excellent album to add to any Jazz-Rock Fusion lover's music collection. Not quite as good as his other 1974 release, Face in Reflection, but still worthy of listening to (and enjoying).

Matti P One thing progheads tend to remember American keyboardist George Duke from, is his participation in Frank Zappa's band. After that he made a successful career blending rock, jazz and r&b, recording well over 30 studio albums. DreamWeaver is the very last one, released just a month before he passed away at the age of 67. Her wife Corine had died of leukemia in 2012. Three years since his latest album, as Duke was recovering from his grief, he confronted difficulties in making new music. Finally the inspiration came when he was on a cruise watching the sun rise. According to him, DreamWeaver was his most sincere album for a long time.

Stylistic diversity is common on Duke's albums, but this one is a very many-sided set of music, covering lively jazz/fusion, funk, soul-influenced pop, r&b ballads -- and synth music. Like the two little 'Transition' vignettes, the short title track in the beginning is a mysterious-sounding synth piece, followed seamlessly by 'Stones of Orion', an excellent, piano-led jazz/fusion track full of happy groove. Kamasi Washington is on tenor sax, Daniel Higgins on flute, and Stanley Clarke's upright bass sounds great. 'Trippin'' is a cool r&b-ish song sung by Duke. I don't like r&b in general, and the drum programming in this otherwise OK song represents the genre's bad sides. 'Ashtray' is pure funk, very catchy at that.

'Missing You' starts with Duke's spoken, piano-backed intro. The main vocalist is Rachelle Ferrell on this light-hearted song that makes me think of a cocktail bar on a cruise. R&b / gospel syrup 'Change the World' features several guest vocalists. 'Jazzmatazz' is a fast-tempo song with r&b and rap elements. The rest of the album operates more pleasantly between fresh-sounding instrumental fusion ('Brown Sneakers' has marvelous synth and electric guitar soli!) and pretty good vocal numbers that fortunately aren't soaked in that r&b attitude. Teena Marie sings 'Ball & Chain' jazz ballad with sensual passion. 15½-minute 'Burnt Sausage Jam' is a wonderful fusion piece; one can hear the joy of playing from the stellar cast. 'Happy Trails' is a nice, lightly r&b flavoured version of a song that Dale Evans wrote in the early fifties.

Surprisingly happy, sweet and life-celebrating DreamWeaver incorporates musical genres (r&b, funk, gospel) that may not hit the target among the fusion listeners, but being 74 minutes long it sure has several highlights too. When it's good, it's very good.

J-Man With George Duke's unfortunate passing just a few days ago, now feels like as good a time as any to revisit one of the man's finest albums, 1975's I Love the Blues, She Heard My Cry. This record was released towards the end of Duke's time spent playing with Frank Zappa's band, and it's apparent that some elements of Zappa's quirky and complex fusion music had rubbed off on him by this point - although not entirely a jazz fusion observation, I Love the Blues, She Heard My Cry contains some tracks like "That's What She Said" and "Giant Child Within Us - Ego" that sound straight out of the Zappa playbook. Not too surprising when one considers that fellow Zappa alumni Ruth Underwood, Bruce Fowler, and Tom Fowler also participated on this album!

I Love the Blues, She Heard My Cry also explores funk and soul-inspired music without ever coming across as bland (even the ballad "Someday" is fantastic!), as well as humorous hard rock on "Rokkinrowl, I Don't Know" and pure traditional blues in the title track. The title track is the only song that I could really do without; I feel that it is a rather weak way to end such a fantastic record, but blues fans may be more into the song than I am. Even taking the out-of-place title track into consideration, I Love the Blues, She Heard My Cry is one of the best jazz fusion albums of the classic era, and an essential pickup for all fusion enthusiasts. Rest easy, Duke!

J-Man Sometimes I really wonder why I still bother with new George Duke releases. Even after being disappointed time and time again by his recent albums, I still bought Déjà Vu right after its release date. With a hazy memory of the disastrous Dukey Treats in my mind, I was hoping that many of the issues there could be solved with Déjà Vu. Although Déjà Vu is a slight improvement over its predecessor, it's still a mediocre album at best. If you are looking for smooth adult contemporary jazz, you'll find a lot of that. If you're looking to hear George Duke's mastery as a jazz fusion keyboard maestro, you'll be sorely disappointed. With the sole exception of a few tracks, this is an hour of boring soul-funk that will make you wonder just where Dukey went wrong. Strangely enough, the good songs on this album (which are very few) are what make this album so disappointing. George Duke has proven that he still knows how to play solid jazz rock - it's more an issue of him choosing to play radio-friendly smooth jazz. There's no doubt that there's an audience for Déjà Vu, but I must say that I'm not part of it.

As previously mentioned the music here is adult contemporary jazz with very few jazz rock tendencies. Compositionally, the songs aren't that enjoyable either, regardless of my own genre preferences. Songs like "Bring Me Joy" and "Come to Me Now" are extremely cringe-worthy, whether it be from the clichéd lyrics, boring instrumentation, or awful radio-friendly vibe. The only songs that are slightly above average are the two closers, "Stupid Is As Stupid Does" and the title track. Unfortunately, waiting 40 minutes to get to those songs is pretty worthless. Despite my lack of affection towards this album, that isn't to say that there's nothing good about it. The musicianship and production are both excellent and professional, but that isn't nessacerily a huge surprise when you consider the product that we're dealing with here. The production is expected to be pretty good on a professional album like this, as is the musicianship from this cast of musicians. The biggest problem here is just that this is over-polished contemporary jazz that is often uninspired and boring. A good production and delivery can't quite change that.

Déjà Vu is yet another disappointing album from George Duke. I keep hoping he'll go back to making great jazz rock, but I guess it's just not meant to be. There's hintings of greatness here, but they are much too few and far between to spend your money on. The only people I would recommend this album to are fans of smooth jazz and George Duke completists. Because the production and musicianship are good, I'll go with a very small 2 stars. If you've been disappointed with other recent George Duke albums, odds are that Déjà Vu won't change your mind.