Feel
(1974)
With this recording, I began experimenting more with synthesizer orchestration. The funky side of my nature was really beginning to show. I also began to sing more. This was the first time I really tried to sing a song on record. The other times, it was more like scatting.
I have been asked many times who the guitar player was on "Love" and "Old Slippers". It was Frank Zappa using the alias name, Obdewl'l X. Just as an aside, I did an arrangement of "Old Slippers" for a Joe Henderson album also.
Back in the 70's, Fantasy records was a haven for jazz. There were three studios, and at any given time, I could walk out into the hall and see Joe Henderson, Cannonball Adderley, Joe Williams, Sonny Rollins or Gene Ammons. Because of this incredible informal interplay, most of us wound up playing on each other's records. Hence, on this LP, you can find the services of Airto perc, Flora Purim vocals.
I really think it is possible (and still do) to make good music and be commercial at the same time. I believe it is the artist's responsibility to take the music to the people. Art for art's sake is nice; but if art doesn't communicate, then its worth is negated, it has not fulfilled its destiny. Uh oh, I guess I'm getting heavy.
Anyway, Feel remains a favorite with many of my fans. Also, college radio was very important not only to this album, but to fusion/funk/jazz artists in general.
I would also like to mention that this record began a long relationship with Kerry McNabb, who was an incredible recording engineer at Paramount Recording Studio in Hollywood. His recordings still stand up today. I met him through the many hours of work in the studio with Zappa. I started calling him Mr. McFreeze because he liked the temperature at sub freezing levels in the studio. Last I heard, he took over his fathers company which specialized in making knobs.
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George Duke