Follow the Rainbow

Artist: George Duke
Label: Japanese Import
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Format: Import
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1

UPC: 766487754422
EAN: 0766487754422
ASIN: B00005LPBB

Release Date: 2001-08-22

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Tracks:

Party Down
Say That You Will
Funkin' for the Thrill
Sunrise
Festival
I Am for Real
Straight from the Heart
Corine
Pluck
Follow the Rainbow

Similar Items:

Reach for It
Don't Let Go
Master of the Game
Cool
Streamline

Customer Reviews:

DUKEY'S STICK FINALLY HITS IT HOME WITH THIS ONE !.......2007-02-11

I saw quite a few of these reviews that said that this isn't George Duke's best effort. I can't compare this album to his more jazz oriented albums because I never heard those. I would say that this is his best R&B album.

This is the album where all the r&b elements he's been experimenting with since "Just for You" reached its apex and came together for one consistenly engaging record. "Reach for It", "Don't let Go", and "Master of the Game" all had their moments of brillance, but those albums were bogged down by a lot of filler tracks that's not really all that memorable.

Follow the Rainbow is a bag that's full of goodies. Creatively, the songs don't seem all that far fecthed since the Parliament and Earth, Wind, and Fire influences are still obvious throughout the record. However duke and his cast of musicians and singers has the personality and the songs to make these contemporary styles their own.

They also take a number of chances on this album that helps make this disc a masterpiece (especially during the the second half of the album). "Straight from the Heart" is a cool little fusion of Soul and Pop/ Rock, "Festival" continues the carribean styled jazz/funk that hardcore fans know him for. "Corine" is a smooth laid back midtempo burner that that crooses the line between Quiet Storm R&B and easy listening jazz. The exprimental tracks are equally as delightful as the R&B tracks and help give the album a bit of variety.

So even if people don't think this is George Duke's best overall album, you have to admit that track for track, this is his best R&B album.

Any music fan or old school head owe it to themselves to "Party down" to this record!

Follow the Rainbow..........2007-01-23

I too, waited patiently for this album (I received my copy in 2002 - but just now have chosen to comment on it!) At the time, I paid $26/US (Import Price) to get it from CDNOW before they merged with Amazon.com! I like the entire album, but my favorites are "Say that you Will' and 'Straight from the Heart." I can play those two songs all day long! Some folks are selling it for less, if the copy is good, snap it up! Five stars!

Highly underrated artist and album.......2005-05-06

I was a kid when this album came out..about 8 to 9...and together with EWF albums All n All ...they became my favourite albums....for years. And it is standing the test of time. just listened to it yesterday and grooved.

I can't understand why this album is not rated as a classic Funk album. I think it is because the problem that it has too many different styles together..and because it was to hard to grasp music to became to commercial. I have tried to look for better Duke albums but never found one..although i tried...

If you want to find a highly underrated gem and ur into funk and soul. Try this one. U will be highly surprised.

FESTIVAL!!!!!!!!.......2004-06-12

George Duke has spent most of his career offering up what I
call hybrid music-an upbeat mixture of funk,R&B,rock,fusion and
Brazillian music.And of course 'Follow The Rainbow" is absolutely no exception.Duke was in his prime in 1979 and aside
from the instrumental Brazillian jazz of "Festival" and the
gentle ballads "Say That You Will","Corine" and "Sunrise" the
album relys pretty heavy on uptempo,funky grooves such as the
highly EWF inflected "Party Down",the ferverant "Funkin' For The
Thrill",the joyous P-Funk of "I Am For Real",the smooth
"Straight From The Heart" and an instrumental the 'reaches' back
to a certain past triumph in "Pluck".So even ammong the ballads
and funk tunes,genres that all too easily slip into a formuliac
wasteland,are all given a thorough exploration here as Duke's
fine keyboard and synthesizer work amply explores the many musical worlds he chooses to visit.So in a nutshell this is one
of those albums whose cover is a very good visual description of
the music contained within.So if you see this CD cover,you know
you'll be in for a colorful,fun ride!

A George Duke Time Machine.......2002-11-24

Let me start by saying that I'm very happy that this import is available through Amazon.com. There are more than a few unscrupulous on-line importers who tend not to deliver the goods long after the check's been cashed. I've wanted this album on CD for many years, and when I found it on Amazon.com, I ordered it without hesitation.

Now, as for the album itself: By no stretch of the imagination do I consider this to be among Mr. Duke's finest work. It's a very good album, but it is very much of its time, which was 1979, when artists wanted rotation in discotheques in order to reach a wide audience. George struck a vein with 1977's _Reach For It_ and 1978's _Don't Let Go_. _Follow The Rainbow_ was a logical progression of that path, although it's unclear whether the path was charted by Duke himself or by the A&R department at Columbia/Epic.

Acquiring this album on CD was important enough to me that my current objective criticisms of it are unimportant. When this was initially released on LP, I was a 22-year-old kid stationed in Hampton VA, simultaneously having the best and worst times of my life. This album was part of that soundtrack -- to the "best" times, by the way.

The former keyboardist for Frank Zappa(!) and Al Jarreau (before he went mainstream) has always had a bag of tricks up his sleeve. He avoided being savaged by jazz purists, a la Herbie Hancock, because of his mastery of "blues" piano. His contributions to the "fusion" movement still stand tall today as the finest examples of the best of that genre. But his pedigree alone defies that he would be pigeon-holed in a "type" of music. Witness his classical work on _Muir Woods Suite_. Much of his best work still is unavailable on CD, including Columbia/Epic's "From Me To You" and his collaboration with the late Noel Pointer and Earl Klugh on "Mirabella" from the live album _Blue Note Live At The Roxy_. That stuff needs to be heard, but it isn't on CD anywhere. I've checked.

Nonetheless, there aren't very many examples of George's keyboard mastery on this CD. They're there, but this album is mostly vocals-driven in an attempt to reach for the pop audience. It's also very derivative of the groups who were on top at the time. Listen closely, or maybe not so closely, and you can hear Chic, Earth Wind & Fire, and of course, Parliament/Funkadelic in the arrangements. That's not such a terrible thing because they aren't direct rip-offs, and he did succeed in forming those influences into something of his own.

I can hear Philip Bailey singing the chorus of "Sunrise", which is the sleeper of this album, and making hay out of it. But unlike the predecessors, _Reach For It_ and _Don't Let Go_, George doesn't offer very much for those of us who just want to hear him play.

I love this album for what it was, I'm glad that I have my copy and I hope that more of his earlier work gets released.

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