George Duke Net Worth: George Duke was an American musician who had a net worth of $500 thousand. Born on January 12, 1946, in San Rafael, California, US, he stood as a true master among keyboardists of both jazz and popular music in the 20th century. Young Duke studied the piano at school and by the age of sixteen, he had already played with a number of high school jazz groups. Heavily influenced by the sounds of Miles Davis, Les McCann and Cal Tjader, he went on to extend his musical knowledge at the San Francisco Conservatory where he earned his B.A. degree in 1967. Next, George and his younger sister Al Jarreau formed a group that turned into the house band at San Francisco's Half Note Club. After he received a M.A. in composition from San Francisco State University, Duke briefly taught a course on Jazz And American Culture at Merritt Junior College in Oakland. It was at this point that George started to release a series of jazz LP's on the MPS label. 1969 marks his performances with French violinist Jean-Luc Ponty, accompanying Ponty's electric violin with an electric piano. Then, he played on Frank Zappa's album King Kong, after which he joined Zappa's group in 1970. This experience transformed his music for good. Under Zappa's sway, he singed, joked and used electronics. The two artists wrote together "Uncle Remus" for Apostrophe (1972), a song about black attitudes to oppression. In 1972, Duke also contributed to a great edition of the rock band Mothers Of Invention and toured with Cannonball Adderley (replacing Joe Zawinul). After Zappa, Duke expressed his leaning towards soul jazz and eventually went for full-frontal funk. Ever since, he has showed his mastery in more than 30 albums that he made on his own, his last being 2013′s Dream Weaver. As for his major hit singles, they include such tracks as the funky "Reach For It" and the deliciously smooth "No Rhyme, No Reason." The world lost this legendary artist on August 5, 2013.
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