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Remembering Jeff Duke

Overview

Remembering Jeff Duke --- 2020-06-06

When in 2010 we began the weekly online improvisational music-sharing event known as ImprovFriday (by late 2012 renamed Sound-In), one of the founding members was a guitarist living in Ocala, Florida, by the name of Jeff Duke. Coming from a psych-rock background but with an experimental bent, Jeff was master at building ambient, looping guitar textures, often with soaring solos embedded in the mix. He was also an early adopter of live-streaming, and an enthusiastic collaborator with other online musicians across the country and across the oceans. From 2010 through 2013 Jeff was a constant presence and inspiration in our ImprovFriday / Sound-In events, and it was my honor to be able to mash/mix so many of his tracks with the contributions of our other members. Around the end of 2013, Jeff's health issues and a general dissatisfaction led to him stopping most playing, yet we stayed in touch as he rode out the Florida storms over the years. In May of 2020, cancer claimed Jeff before we could give much of a proper goodbye. This album is dedicated to his memory, and features ImprovFriday / Sound-In mash-ups I made during 2010-2013, all featuring Jeff's own playing interwoven with the other musicians that had dropped in that week. Making mash-up mixes is a bit like cooking; the overall "flavor" of a mashup is heavily influenced by the particular sound of the musicians that went into it. And so it is with these tracks; including Jeff's guitar work just about guaranteed that the vibe would take on a spacious, psychedelic, sailing or soaring ambiance. Thanks and rest in peace, Jeff, our warm friend and a great musician. Jeff Duke's own music can be found at his Bandcamp web page: jeffduke.bandcamp.com Jeff's collaborations with the Italian guitarist Gaetano Fontanazza as UsIt can also be found on Bandcamp: usit.bandcamp.com