As mentioned in my review for The Aura Will Prevail, I came to George Duke via his work with Frank Zappa, so when I began seeking out his solo material I was searching for music with a likeminded mentality. Not the overt humor so much, but the “eyebrows” as Zappa himself would put it. As the second of two releases Duke put out in 1975, I Love The Blues, She Heard My Cry is a gorgeous title, subtly hiding the eyebrows that are in plain sight when you put the actual record on. Featuring huge cast of rotating musicians, including a number of vets from Zappa’s band, this album eases up on the jazz fusion and proggy elements of the previous record just enough to let the rock in. There’s still a whirlwind of influences at play, and out of the trio of records I own from Duke, this is the one I go back to the most.

I’m probably like a lot of people in that I came to George Duke, the incredible keyboardist, composer, funk master and man about town through Frank Zappa and his indelible 70s unit. I had heard there was a solo album from Duke where, due to contractual obligations, Zappa took the assumed name of Obdewl’l X in order to contribute guitars to the album. It took a while to find a good copy of 1974’s Feel, and in the intervening time I came across a pair of albums released in 1975 that further stretched my perception of the man’s talent. 50 years seems like a great reason to jump back into them, so we’ll start with the first one released that year, The Aura Will Prevail.