Contemporary Jazz/Jazz Fusion or "Smooth Jazz" [[Is There A Difference ? )

[cozmic]

Sypro Gyro R&B?????...are you kidding me??????

That was a great performance Miss M ! Thanx for sharing.

Another dig from their earlier work :




As for George Duke's catalogue. It's imo way too diverse to mainly file it under smooth or instrumental R&B.
I mean, the cat started recording/performing with Cannonball Adderly's Quintet :




Then he recorded his very first solo-albums during the mid to late 60's, and became a touring-member of
Frank Zappa's "Mothers Of Invention" during the early 70's. Frank's work wasn't excactly easy to play. Quite complex stuff.
Check on youtube an anecdote of Zappa's former drummer Terry Bozzio. He tells about auditioning for Frank's band.
George and Frank were choosing which drummers could pass for another round, but most drummers were dropping like flies lol !



During his Mothers Of Invention-years, George continued recording for another label called MPS. That was a great experimental era,
as GeeTee already mentioned before. Some stuff from those years :





Not to forget the quartet he formed around the 70's with Billy Cobham, Alphonso Johnson and John Scofield :




They reunited years later :




George still released here and there tight instrumental work [["Fuzzzion" [[1989 : featuring a few of his former jazzrock-buddies Alphonso Johnson, Jean-Luc Ponty, etc...) /
"Bus Tours" [[1992) / "Ten Mile Jog" [[2002 : eleven and a half minutes of raw energy), although he may have indeed went more towards r&b/pop, especially as producer for
artists like Dee Dee Bridgewater, Deniece Williams, Howard Hewett, Jeffrey Osborne, Rufus, Seawind, Stephanie Mills, Taste Of Honey, etc...



Some of Tom Browne's rawer stuff :





Lee Ritenour & the late great Tommy Bolin recording on Alphonse Mouzon's album :







Tell me how these below are easier accessible to play :