George Duke, Grammy-winning jazz/funk/R&B keyboardist, composer, and producer passed away Monday from leukemia in Los Angeles. He was 67 years old. With credits ranging from Michael Jackson to Miles Davis to Frank Zappa, Duke had an incredible career spanning multiple genres.
He began taking piano lessons at age 4, after seeing Duke Ellington. He graduated from the San Francisco Conservatory in 1967, and later was a moving force in the development of jazz-fusion, including the seminal Jean-Luc Ponty Experience with The George Duke Trio album. Starting in 1976, he released more than 40 solo and collaborative albums, his most recent being Dreamweaver, which was released on July 16.