DREAMWEAVER

George Duke

•

Jazz Rock/Fusion

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3.00 | 1 ratings | 1 reviews | 0% 5 stars

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Studio Album, released in 2013

Songs / Tracks Listing

1. Dreamweaver (1:27)
2. Stones Of Orion (6:27)
3. Trippin' (4:21)
4. Ashtray (4:00)
5. Missing You (5:45)
6. Transition 1 (0:14)
7. Change The World (5:54)
8. Jazzmatazz (4:44)
9. Round The Way Girl (4:11)
10. Transition 2 (0:17)
11. Brown Sneakers (6:10)
12. You Never Know (4:02)
13. Ball & Chain (5:58)
14. Burnt Sausage Jam (15:32)
15. Happy Trails (5:01)

Total Time 74:03

Line-up / Musicians

- George Duke / synthesizer (MiniMoog, ARP Odyssey...), clavinet (14), vocals (3,5,7,8,12,15), keyboards (5), Rhodes (2,4,7-9,11,12), piano (2,5,7,8,12,14), Wurlitzer (15), programming, drum programming (3,7,8,13,15), orchestration, producer & arranger

With:
- Paul Jackson Jr. / guitar (4,7,11)
- Jef Lee Johnson / guitar (5,9,12,14,15)
- Michael Landau / guitar (8)
- Everette Harp / alto saxophone (2,4,8,14)
- Kamasi Washington / tenor saxophone (2-4,8,13,14)
- Daniel Higgins / tenor saxophone (4), flute (2)
- Gary Grant / trumpet (2,4)
- Michael Patches Stewart / trumpet (3,8,13,14)
- Ramon Flores / trumpet (8)
- Allen Kaplan / trombone (8,14)
- Stanley Clarke / electric upright bass (2)
- Larry Kimpel / bass (5,9,12,15)
- Michael Manson / bass (11)
- Christian McBride / bass (14)
- Gordon Campbell / drums (2,4,5,9,11,12,15)
- John Roberts / drums (14)
- Lenny Castro / percussion (11)
- Rachelle Ferrell / vocals (5)
- Bebe Winans / vocals (7)
- Dira Sugandi / vocals (7)
- Freddie Jackson / vocals (7)
- Howard Hewett / vocals (7)
- Jeffrey Osborne / vocals (7)
- Lalah Hathaway / vocals (7)
- Chill / rap vocals (8)
- Teena Marie / vocals (13)
- Lamont VanHook / backing vocals (3,5,8,12)
- Terry Dexter / backing vocals (3,7,8)
- Shannon Pearson / backing vocals (3)
- Jim Gilstrap / backing vocals (5,7,12,15)
- Kennedy Fuselier / kid vocals (7)
- Josie James / backing vocals (8)
- Lori Perry / backing vocals (7,12,15)
- Rose Geddes / voice (4)
- Chris Clarke / voice (4)
- Lisa Chamblee-Hampton / voice (9)

Releases information

Artwork: Randall Moses with Toshihiro Sakurai (photo)

CD Heads Up International ‎- HUI-34170-02 (2013, US)
CD Heads Up International ‎- HUI-34170-02 (2013, Europe)

Thanks to historian9 for the addition
and to Quinino for the last updates
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GEORGE DUKE Dreamweaver ratings distribution

3.00
(1 ratings)

Essential: a masterpiece of progressive rock music(0%)
Excellent addition to any prog rock music collection(0%)
Good, but non-essential (100%)
Collectors/fans only (0%)
Poor. Only for completionists (0%)

GEORGE DUKE Dreamweaver reviews

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Collaborators/Experts Reviews

Review by Matti
PROG REVIEWER

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. 15�-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.

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