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The Clarke/Duke Project

The Clarke/Duke Project

BY Clarke, Stanley and George Duke

(Customer Reviews)
$8.00
SKU: EK 36918
Label:
Epic
Category:
Fusion
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"Stanley and I had been working together for some time before we made this record. We often talked about the possibility of recording an album together and Epic agreed to let us do it. The interesting thing about this record is that it is a power trio record. Stanley and I decided right away that this record would live or die by us; that we had to be the focus of this record; not the orchestration, not the background vocals, etc. The music had to emanate from us and by us, and that would make it unique. Stanley and I decided to make a totally different record from what the record company expected. We felt we had to stretch the boundaries. I'm sure Epic thought they were getting a fusion jazz record; But Stanley had played all the Return To Forever music he cared to by this time.
The largest surprise for Epic was the song we chose as our first single from the record, "Sweet Baby." In fact they fought us on this track. The R&B department said it was too white and there was nothing they could do with it. The pop department said we were black artists with a white record and that they didn't have the time to promote this record at pop radio. So Stanley and I went to an independent promotion firm (Cliff Gorov) to push this record, and in essence bypass CBS. Well, needless to say, when the record began to make some noise, CBS jumped in as if they were there all along and brought the record home.

I wrote "Sweet Baby" while looking over the water one afternoon in Berkeley, California while we were already in session for the project. It was written very quickly, and I called Stanley, who was in the room next to mine, and told him to come over and listen to this little pop song. I thought he would hate it, but just the opposite happened. We went in the next day and recorded it and the rest is history. To date, it is my largest across the board hit record. I finally made the top ten pop charts, WOW!

We chose John Robinson as our drummer because of his strong steady approach to rhythm. He was with Rufus and layin' it down real hard. He was perfect!!

Stanley and I were constantly on the road, doing television shows, or whatever. I broke up my band during this period and everyone went their separate ways. One thing I should mention that meant so much to me during this period, was a congratulatory phone call from Quincy Jones. After we hit the top ten, Q called me just to say "a job well done" I'll never forget that gesture on his part. "Q, I'll always love ya!!"

Don't ask me why we did so much singing, but we did!! We wanted to make an instrumental record with vocals as a vehicle to communicate. Besides, instrumentals were not and still are not played on top radio formats. We went after this one and were fortunate to realize our dreams. We became R&B/Jazz/Pop stars for a moment.

 

This LP also became the vehicle for my first video. Actually, it spawned three videos. I can remember that Stanley and I were extremely upset that MTV would not play any of our videos because we were black artists. I guess they can't be accused of that now! Oh yeah, we got a Grammy Nomination, but lost. It was 1981." - George Duke

Product Review

The selling out by a talented group of musicians. No Prog or fusion here folks and the start of Duke's decline into commercialism. No wonder Quincy loved it.
Red Circle 1 - 2015-11-30 16:33
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