Jack McDuff
Encyclopedia
"Brother" Jack McDuff was an American
jazz
organist
and organ trio
bandleader
who was most prominent during the hard bop
and soul jazz
era of the 1960s, often performing with an organ trio
.
, McDuff began playing bass
, appearing in Joe Farrell
's group. Encouraged by Willis Jackson in whose band he also played bass in the late 50s, McDuff moved to the organ and began to attract the attention of Prestige Records
while still with Jackson's group. McDuff soon became a bandleader, leading groups featuring a young George Benson
, Red Holloway
on saxophone and Joe Dukes on drums.
McDuff recorded many classic albums on Prestige including his debut solo Brother Jack in 1960, The Honeydripper (1961), with tenor saxophonist Jimmy Forrest and guitarist Grant Green
, and Brother Jack Meets The Boss (1962), featuring Gene Ammons
, and Screamin’ (1962).
After his tenure at Prestige, McDuff joined the Atlantic Records
label for a brief period and then in the 70s recorded for Blue Note
. To Seek a New Home (1970) was recorded in England with a line-up featuring blues shouter
Jimmy Witherspoon
and some of Britain's top jazz musicians of the day, including Terry Smith
on guitar and Dick Morrissey
on tenor sax.
The decreasing interest in jazz and blues during the late 70s and 1980s meant that many jazz musicians went through a lean time and it wasn't until the late 1980s, with The Re-Entry, recorded for the Muse label in 1988, that McDuff once again began a successful period of recordings, initially for Muse, then on the Concord Jazz label from 1991. George Benson appeared on his mentor’s 1992 Colour Me Blue album.
Despite health problems, McDuff continued working and recording throughout the 1980s and 1990s, and toured Japan with Atsuko Hashimoto
in 2000. "Captain" Jack McDuff, as he later became known, died of heart failure at the age of 74 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
organist
Organist
An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ. An organist may play solo organ works, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumental soloists...
and organ trio
Organ trio
An organ trio, in a jazz context, is a group of three jazz musicians, typically consisting of a Hammond organ player, a drummer, and either a jazz guitarist or a saxophone player. In some cases the saxophonist will join a trio which consists of an organist, guitarist, and drummer, making it a quartet...
bandleader
Bandleader
A bandleader is the leader of a band of musicians. The term is most commonly, though not exclusively, used with a group that plays popular music as a small combo or a big band, such as one which plays jazz, blues, rhythm and blues or rock and roll music....
who was most prominent during the hard bop
Hard bop
Hard bop is a style of jazz that is an extension of bebop music. Journalists and record companies began using the term in the mid-1950s to describe a new current within jazz which incorporated influences from rhythm and blues, gospel music, and blues, especially in the saxophone and piano...
and soul jazz
Soul jazz
Soul jazz is a development of jazz incorporating strong influences from blues, soul, gospel and rhythm and blues in music for small groups, often an organ trio featuring a Hammond organ.- Overview :Soul jazz is often associated with hard bop. Mark C...
era of the 1960s, often performing with an organ trio
Organ trio
An organ trio, in a jazz context, is a group of three jazz musicians, typically consisting of a Hammond organ player, a drummer, and either a jazz guitarist or a saxophone player. In some cases the saxophonist will join a trio which consists of an organist, guitarist, and drummer, making it a quartet...
.
Career
Born Eugene McDuffy in Champaign, IllinoisChampaign, Illinois
Champaign is a city in Champaign County, Illinois, in the United States. The city is located south of Chicago, west of Indianapolis, Indiana, and 178 miles northeast of St. Louis, Missouri. Though surrounded by farm communities, Champaign is notable for sharing the campus of the University of...
, McDuff began playing bass
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
, appearing in Joe Farrell
Joe Farrell
Joseph Carl Firrantello , known as Joe Farrell, was an American jazz saxophonist and flutist. He is best known for a series of albums under his own name on the CTI record label and for playing in the initial incarnation of Chick Corea's Return to Forever.-Biography:Farrell was born in Chicago...
's group. Encouraged by Willis Jackson in whose band he also played bass in the late 50s, McDuff moved to the organ and began to attract the attention of Prestige Records
Prestige Records
Prestige Records was a jazz record label founded in 1949 by Bob Weinstock. The company was located at 203 South Washington Avenue in Bergenfield, New Jersey, and recorded hundreds of albums by many of the leading jazz musicians of the day, sometimes issuing them under the names of several...
while still with Jackson's group. McDuff soon became a bandleader, leading groups featuring a young George Benson
George Benson
George Benson is a ten Grammy Award winning American musician, whose production career began at the age of twenty-one as a jazz guitarist....
, Red Holloway
Red Holloway
James W. "Red" Holloway is an American jazz tenor saxophonist.-Biography:Holloway started playing banjo and harmonica, switching to tenor sax when he was twelve years old...
on saxophone and Joe Dukes on drums.
McDuff recorded many classic albums on Prestige including his debut solo Brother Jack in 1960, The Honeydripper (1961), with tenor saxophonist Jimmy Forrest and guitarist Grant Green
Grant Green
Grant Green was a jazz guitarist and composer....
, and Brother Jack Meets The Boss (1962), featuring Gene Ammons
Gene Ammons
Eugene "Jug" Ammons also known as "The Boss," was an American jazz tenor saxophonist, and the son of boogie-woogie pianist Albert Ammons.-Biography:...
, and Screamin’ (1962).
After his tenure at Prestige, McDuff joined the Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and jazz...
label for a brief period and then in the 70s recorded for Blue Note
Blue note
In jazz and blues, a blue note is a note sung or played at a slightly lower pitch than that of the major scale for expressive purposes. Typically the alteration is a semitone or less, but this varies among performers and genres. Country blues, in particular, features wide variations from the...
. To Seek a New Home (1970) was recorded in England with a line-up featuring blues shouter
Blues shouter
A blues shouter is a blues singer, often male, capable of singing with a band. The singer must project, or "shout", to be heard over the drums and musical instruments of the band. Blues shouting was a major pathway by which jazz music edged over into rock and roll...
Jimmy Witherspoon
Jimmy Witherspoon
Jimmy Witherspoon was an American jump blues singer.-Early life and career:James Witherspoon was born in Gurdon, Arkansas. He first attracted attention singing with Teddy Weatherford's band in Calcutta, India, which made regular radio broadcasts over the U. S. Armed Forces Radio Service during...
and some of Britain's top jazz musicians of the day, including Terry Smith
Terry Smith (British jazz guitarist)
Terence 'Terry' Smith is a British Jazz guitarist.-Biography:Twice winner of the Melody Maker Music Polls, Smith spent the early 1960s playing with the Tony Lee Trio, before becoming Scott Walker's musical director and accompanying The Walker Brothers on their Japan tour in 1968...
on guitar and Dick Morrissey
Dick Morrissey
Richard Edwin "Dick" Morrissey was a British jazz musician and composer. He played the tenor sax, soprano sax and flute.- Background :...
on tenor sax.
The decreasing interest in jazz and blues during the late 70s and 1980s meant that many jazz musicians went through a lean time and it wasn't until the late 1980s, with The Re-Entry, recorded for the Muse label in 1988, that McDuff once again began a successful period of recordings, initially for Muse, then on the Concord Jazz label from 1991. George Benson appeared on his mentor’s 1992 Colour Me Blue album.
Despite health problems, McDuff continued working and recording throughout the 1980s and 1990s, and toured Japan with Atsuko Hashimoto
Atsuko Hashimoto
Atsuko Hashimoto, is a jazz musician from Osaka, Japan who plays Hammond B-3 electronic organ and has performed in Japan and the United States. To date, she has recorded five albums of organ trio and organ quartet jazz.-Career:...
in 2000. "Captain" Jack McDuff, as he later became known, died of heart failure at the age of 74 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
As leader
- Jack McDuff Plays for Beautiful People (Prestige 1960)
- Rock Candy (Prestige 1960)
- Brother Jack (Prestige 1960)
- Tough 'Duff (Original Jazz 1960)
- The Honeydripper (Original Jazz 1961)
- Goodnight, It's Time to Go (Prestige 1961)
- Steppin' Out (Prestige 1961)
- Sanctified (Prestige 1961)
- On With It (Prestige 1961)
- Mellow Gravy (Prestige 1962)
- Screamin (Original Jazz 1962)
- Brother Jack Live! at the Jazz Workshop (Prestige 1963)
- Brother Jack McDuff Live! (Prestige 1963)
- Crash! by Jack McDuff & Kenny BurrellKenny BurrellKenneth Earl "Kenny" Burrell is an American jazz guitarist. His playing is grounded in bebop and blues; he has performed and recorded with a wide range of jazz musicians.-Biography:...
(Prestige 1963) - Hallelujah Time! (Prestige 1963)
- The Midnight Sun (Prestige 1963)
- Somethin' Slick (Prestige 1963)
- Dynamic! (Prestige 1964)
- The Concert McDuff Recorded Live! (Prestige 1964)
- Silken Soul (Prestige 1964)
- I Got A Woman (Prestige 1964)
- Prelude (Prestige 1964)
- Soul Circle (Prestige 1964)
- Hot Barbeque (Prestige 1965)
- Walk On By (Prestige 1966)
- A Change Is Gonna Come (Atlantic 1966)
- Tobacco Road (Atlantic 1966)
- Do It Now! (Atlantic 1966)
- Getting Our Thing Together (Cadet 1968)
- The Natural Thing (MCA 1968)
- Double Barrelled Soul (Atlantic 1968)
- Gin And Orange (Cadet 1969)
- Down Home StyleDown Home StyleDown Home Style is an album by American organist Brother Jack McDuff recorded in 1969 and released on the Blue Note label.-Reception:The Allmusic review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine awarded the album 4 stars and stated "A set of gritty electric funk and soulful blues, Down Home Style is an excellent...
(Blue Note 1969) - Moon Rappin'Moon Rappin'Moon Rappin' is an album by American organist Brother Jack McDuff recorded in 1969 and released on the Blue Note label.-Reception:The Allmusic review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine awarded the album 3 stars and stated "Moon Rappin is one of Brother Jack McDuff's most ambitious efforts, a loose concept...
(Blue Note 1969) - To Seek a New HomeTo Seek a New HomeDown Home Style is an album by American organist Brother Jack McDuff recorded in England in 1969 and released on the Blue Note label.-Reception:The Allmusic review awarded the album 3 stars.-Track listing:# "Yellow Wednesday" - 6:35...
(Blue Note 1970) - Who Knows What Tomorrow's Gonna Bring?Who Knows What Tomorrow's Gonna Bring?Who Knows What Tomorrow's Gonna Bring? is an album by American organist Brother Jack McDuff recorded in 1970 and released on the Blue Note label.-Reception:...
(Blue Note 1970) - Check This Out (Cadet 1972)
- The Heatin' System (Cadet 1972)
- The Fourth Dimension (Cadet 1974)
- Magnetic Feel (Cadet 1975)
- Sophisticated Funk (MCA 1976)
- Kisses (Sugar Hill 1982)
- The Re-Entry (32 Jazz 1988)
- Another Real Good'un (Muse 1989)
- Color Me Blue (Concord Jazz 1992)
- Hot Barbeque: Live (BGP 1993)
- Write On, Capt'n (Concord Jazz 1993)
- Live (Prestige 1994)
- The Heatin' System (Concord Jazz 1994)
- Hot BBQ (BGP 1995)
- That's The Way I Feel About It (Concord Jazz 1996)
- Jack-Pot (Red 1997)
- Bringin It Home (Concord Jazz 1999)
- Brotherly Love (Concord Jazz 2001)
As sideman
- Kirk's WorkKirk's WorkThe Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings describes Kirk's Work as "a largely forgotten Kirk album, but one which generally deserves the classic reissue billing." Ron Wynn has described the album as "a fine reissue of Kirk in a soul-jazz and mainstream vein." Allmusic notes a "swinging R&B vibe...
by Roland KirkRahsaan Roland KirkRahsaan Roland Kirk was an American jazz multi-instrumentalist who played tenor saxophone, flute and many other instruments...
(Prestige 1961) - GrantstandGrantstandGrantstand is an album by American jazz guitarist Grant Green featuring performances recorded and released on the Blue Note label in 1961. The CD reissue features one bonus track from the same session.-Reception:...
by Grant GreenGrant GreenGrant Green was a jazz guitarist and composer....
(Blue Note 1961) - Brother Jack Meets the Boss by Jack McDuff & Gene AmmonsGene AmmonsEugene "Jug" Ammons also known as "The Boss," was an American jazz tenor saxophonist, and the son of boogie-woogie pianist Albert Ammons.-Biography:...
(Prestige 1962) - The New Boss Guitar of George Benson With The Brother Jack McDuff Quartet by George BensonGeorge BensonGeorge Benson is a ten Grammy Award winning American musician, whose production career began at the age of twenty-one as a jazz guitarist....
(Prestige 1964) - The Blues is Now by Jimmy WitherspoonJimmy WitherspoonJimmy Witherspoon was an American jump blues singer.-Early life and career:James Witherspoon was born in Gurdon, Arkansas. He first attracted attention singing with Teddy Weatherford's band in Calcutta, India, which made regular radio broadcasts over the U. S. Armed Forces Radio Service during...
& Jack McDuff (Verve, 1967) - Double Barrelled Soul by "Brother" Jack McDuff & David "Fathead" Newman (Atlantic 1968)
- Boss of the B3 by Winston WallsWinston WallsWinston Walls is an American hard bop and soul jazz Hammond B3 organist from Charleston, West Virginia, probably better known for his 1993 debut album as bandleader with back-and-forth performances featuring Jack McDuff called Boss of the B3. Prior to that album, he also worked with musicians such...
(Schoolkids Records 1993) - It's About Time by Jack McDuff & Joey DeFrancescoJoey DeFrancescoJoey DeFrancesco is an American jazz organist, trumpeter, and vocalist. Down Beat's Critics and Readers Poll selected him as the top jazz organist every year since 2003.DeFrancesco was born in Springfield, Pennsylvania...
(Concord Jazz 1996) - (Down Home) Blues by Gene HarrisGene HarrisGene Harris was an American jazz pianist known for his warm sound and blues and gospel infused style that is known as soul jazz....
& Jack McDuff (Concord Jazz 1996)