Search - George Duke :: Illusions

Possibly the most representative Album of George Duke

hayesjam@bloomberg.net | London | 11/13/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The man is a complete musician : good songwriter, arranger, producer and...performer. Wether he hoes on the Grand piano or through his massive samples library, Duke has fully integrated sixty years of Jazz music into one album. Some of the songs are pure jazz rock, instrumental beauties(specially "No greater love" with Dennis Chambers on drums), some others are funk grooves with vocals, but lean towards nicely harmonised melody lines (check "411" and "money"). If you like Quincy Jones's "Back on the block", then you'll love this CD."

Tim the Bassist' review

Time Morris | 04/02/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"George Duke is unbelievable on keyboard. For those who like smooth r+b lyrical content with hot funky jazz music for support, this is good easy listening music."

Textured Modern Grooves

Andre' S Grindle | Bangor,ME. | 09/30/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If theres one little problem with "Illusions" it's that it
tried way too hard to blend contemporary,plastic drum machines
with Duke's everpresent moogs and electric piano grooves but that's only a minor complaint-Duke is in pretty fine form on
"500 Miles To Go",the tital track,"Life And Times" and the unusally topical "Buffalo Soldiers",featuring the narration in
fine jazz-rap style.The beats tend to have the influence of
contemporary jazz and R&B artists like Rachell Farrell (who is on
this album),Diane Reeves (ALSO here) and even a little TLC (not
here) but considering all these acts have a funky foundation AND
all the musical underpinnings provided by Duke are in full
effect "Illusions" comes closest to fully recapturing George
Duke's late 70's funk-styled music then anything to date.Worth
putting time into!"