George Duke: A Brazilian Love Affair

Take the funk/jazz keyboardist George Duke and put him in smack dab in the middle of Brazil, and…what you have here is one of his finest albums. Duke is surrounded by many well-known Brazilian talents such as Airto Moreira, Flora Purim, Milton Nascimento, and many others.  The result is a warm, funky, rhythmic and inviting album that fans of both Duke and Brazilian music in general will like.  Many of Duke’s fans consider it his finest album, and I certainly rank it up among his best as well.

Before the recording of the album, Duke had apparently been listening to some Brasil ’66 albums, and it shows: a lot of the songs are reminiscent of the style Sergio Mendes stamped all over those mid 60s albums with the mix of Brazilian ideas, jazz touches, and a bit of “pop”.  Thanks to the success of Duke’s Reach For It album a couple of years prior, and the subsequent successes of his follow-up funk/jazz albums, he had the leeway to visit Brasil to make this album of his dreams:

I kind of forced my hand on this one. Because of the success the band was having in the R&B world, I asked Epic to let me take the band to Brazil and record an album with some of the great local musicians from the area. They hesitated, but eventually gave in to my request. What resulted is one of my favorite albums, and one which has stood the test of time. Many of my fans think this is my best record, and a good argument could be raised for that point of view.

My idea was to take typical Brazilian rhythms and put my stamp on them with my current touring band. I wanted to work with Milton Nascimento, and I might add that I was thrilled when he said OK. I mostly worked with his rhythm section and intermixed them with mine. One regret I have is not using a young and as yet unknown singer, composer that I met on the beach in Brazil named Ivan Lins. Julie Sayres, who worked in the International department at CBS, was a real asset to this LP. Her enthusiasm was one of the reasons it got off the ground. She is responsible for introducing me to Ivan, and everyone else I met down there. I never will forget the night that I had dinner at his home, and he and his then wife Lucinha (who sang backgrounds on the record) performed these amazing songs for hours. I already had the material for the record set, so I didn’t add any of his material. This was a mistake!

(…from the discography on the George Duke official website)

At least the album itself wasn’t a mistake!  A winner from start to finish, it opens with the title track, featuring Brazilian sounds against a funk beat.  The second half of the tune is more of a cooling out, with Duke improvising for a stretch on his keyboards.  The second track, though, begins digging in its heels:  “Summer Breezin’” has some Brazilian-flavored scat vocals, and Duke even adds a touch of organ on his synths, reminiscent of the 60s sound of Walter Wanderley.  “Cravo e Canela” taps into the sound of Milton Nascimento (who co-authored the track), and “Brazilian Sugar” utilizes Flora Purim.  “Sugar Loaf Mountain” is a brass-flavored funk workout reminiscent of Earth Wind & Fire, with Duke’s keys adding a layer on top.  Riding the crest of Brazil once more, a killer wave in “Up from the Sea It Arose and Ate Rio in One Swift Bite” is the topic of an enthusiastic Brazilian percussion workout.  The doubled vocals here will remind you the most of Brasil ’66.   The original album ended with Nascimento’s “Ao Que Vai Nascer”; the CD version tacks on another Nascimento track, “Caxanga”, as a bonus.

All in all, this album is clearly Duke’s labor of love, and arguably one of the finest in his collection of recorded works.