Sunday Big Note – Listening Session #1

Over the last few weeks and months, fellow KUR-Meisters, while compiling the various mixtapes for Kill Ugly Radio, I had an idea for an ongoing weekly “listening session” of various artists and groups, both Zappa-related along with his contemporaries, as well as others, from various field recordings, FM radio broadcasts, and internet webcasts.

I brought the idea to Barry who also shared my enthusiasm for a weekly “listening session” and he gave the project an enthusiatic green light. Anyone who knows me, knows that I have a near rabid love of recorded live music, so it can pretty much be guaranteed that my contributions to the “Sunday Big Note” listening sessions will be of the “live music” variety. What the other SBN contributors will contribute, though, will be as much a surprise to me as it is to you.

Without further ado, for your listening pleasure, I present The Billy Cobham/George Duke Band at McAlister Auditorium, New Orleans, Louisiana, on February 18th, 1976:

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Jazz Ain’t Dead — Duke/Cobham

In the above clip, from Dutch TV in 2003, George Duke and friends perform “Brazilian Love Affair”, with a closing part of “Echidna’s Arf”.

George Duke (piano/vocals)
Lori Perry (vocals)
Robert Brookings (keyboards)
Ray Fuller (guitar)
Mike Manson (bass)
Gordon Campbell (drums)

In the second clip, the Billy Cobham/George Duke Band perform Cobham’s “Stratus” at the 1998 Montreux Jazz Festival.

Billy Cobham (drums)
George Duke (keyboards)
Carl Orr (guitar)
Stefan Rademacher (bass)

While missing the original flavor of Alphonso Johnson on bass, and John Scofield on guitar, both Orr and Rademacher rise up to the challenge left by their predecessors.