Cornell Dupree
Encyclopedia
Cornell Luther Dupree was an American
jazz
and R&B
guitarist
. He worked at various times with Bill Withers
, Donny Hathaway
, King Curtis
and Steve Gadd
, appeared on David Letterman
, and wrote a book on soul and blues guitar: Rhythm and Blues Guitar ISBN 0-634-00149-3. He reputedly recorded on 2,500 sessions.
studio band, recording on album
s by Aretha Franklin
(Aretha Live at Fillmore West
) and King Curtis
as a member of Curtis's band "The King Pins" (having grown up with King Curtis in Fort Worth, Texas
). He appeared on the 1969 Lena Horne
and Gábor Szabó
recording, and on recordings with Archie Shepp
, Grover Washington, Jr.
, Snooky Young
and Miles Davis
.
He was a founding member of the band Stuff
, which featured fellow guitarist Eric Gale
, Richard Tee
on keyboards, Steve Gadd
and Chris Parker
on drums, and Gordon Edwards on bass. Dupree and Tee recorded together on many occasions. Notable albums include the aforementioned Aretha and King Curtis records, plus Joe Cocker
's Stingray
and Luxury You Can Afford
, plus Cornell's solo albums Teasin, Saturday Night Fever (instrumental), Shadow Dancing, Can't Get Through, Coast to Coast, Uncle Funky, Child's Play, Bop 'n' Blues, and Unstuffed. He played on Brook Benton
's "Rainy Night in Georgia
" and "Please Send Me Someone to Love", and is featured on two tracks of Peter Wolf's 1998 album, Fool's Parade
. He is also known for playing the opening guitar riff on Aretha Franklin's "Respect".
In December 1972, the UK
music magazine, NME
, reported that Dupree, along with Roberta Flack
and Jerry Jemmott
, had been injured in an auto accident in Manhattan
.
(In modern times) Dupree used a Fender "red-knob" Twin Reverb and played a Yamaha
signature guitar called the Dupree Super Jam (it used to be a model similar to the SJ-550 HM, but now is closer to a three-pickup Pacifica with a maple neck).
In 2009, Dupree appeared in a documentary entitled Still Bill
, which chronicled the life and times of Bill Withers. He appeared on stage playing a guitar-led version of Grandma's Hands
. Bill Withers, at first, was sitting in the audience, but ended up joining him on stage to sing the lyrics to the song. In this part of the documentary, Dupree played his guitar on a stool, breathing using a oxygen machine, which foretell his suffering from emphysema
.
Dupree died on May 8, 2011 at his home in Fort Worth, Texas. He had been waiting for a lung transplant as a result of suffering from emphysema
.
With Marlena Shaw
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
and R&B
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
guitarist
Guitarist
A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :The guitarist controls an extremely...
. He worked at various times with Bill Withers
Bill Withers
William Harrison "Bill" Withers, Jr. is an American singer-songwriter and musician who performed and recorded from 1970 until 1985. Some of his best-known songs are "Lean on Me", "Ain't No Sunshine", "Use Me", "Just the Two of Us", "Lovely Day", and "Grandma's Hands"...
, Donny Hathaway
Donny Hathaway
Donny Edward Hathaway was an American soul singer-songwriter and musician. Hathaway contracted with Atlantic Records in 1969 and with his first single for the Atco label, "The Ghetto, Part I" in early 1970, Rolling Stone magazine "marked him as a major new force in soul music."His collaborations...
, King Curtis
King Curtis
Curtis Ousley , who performed under the stage name King Curtis, was an American saxophone virtuoso known for rhythm and blues, rock and roll, soul, funk and soul jazz. Variously a bandleader, band member, and session musician, he was also a musical director and record producer...
and Steve Gadd
Steve Gadd
Steve Gadd is an American session and studio drummer, notable for his work with popular musicians from a wide range of genres.-Biography:...
, appeared on David Letterman
David Letterman
David Michael Letterman is an American television host and comedian. He hosts the late night television talk show, Late Show with David Letterman, broadcast on CBS. Letterman has been a fixture on late night television since the 1982 debut of Late Night with David Letterman on NBC...
, and wrote a book on soul and blues guitar: Rhythm and Blues Guitar ISBN 0-634-00149-3. He reputedly recorded on 2,500 sessions.
Biography
Dupree began his career playing in the Atlantic RecordsAtlantic Records
Atlantic Records is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and jazz...
studio band, recording on album
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
s by Aretha Franklin
Aretha Franklin
Aretha Louise Franklin is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Although known for her soul recordings and referred to as The Queen of Soul, Franklin is also adept at jazz, blues, R&B, gospel music, and rock. Rolling Stone magazine ranked her atop its list of The Greatest Singers of All...
(Aretha Live at Fillmore West
Aretha Live at Fillmore West
Aretha Live at Fillmore West is a gold-certified album by Aretha Franklin, released in 1971. It was reissued on compact disc in the 1990s through Rhino Records. An expanded, limited edition 4-CD box set entitled, Don't Fight The Feeling: The Complete Aretha Franklin & King Curtis Live At Fillmore...
) and King Curtis
King Curtis
Curtis Ousley , who performed under the stage name King Curtis, was an American saxophone virtuoso known for rhythm and blues, rock and roll, soul, funk and soul jazz. Variously a bandleader, band member, and session musician, he was also a musical director and record producer...
as a member of Curtis's band "The King Pins" (having grown up with King Curtis in Fort Worth, Texas
Fort Worth, Texas
Fort Worth is the 16th-largest city in the United States of America and the fifth-largest city in the state of Texas. Located in North Central Texas, just southeast of the Texas Panhandle, the city is a cultural gateway into the American West and covers nearly in Tarrant, Parker, Denton, and...
). He appeared on the 1969 Lena Horne
Lena Horne
Lena Mary Calhoun Horne was an American singer, actress, civil rights activist and dancer.Horne joined the chorus of the Cotton Club at the age of sixteen and became a nightclub performer before moving to Hollywood, where she had small parts in numerous movies, and more substantial parts in the...
and Gábor Szabó
Gábor Szabó
Gábor Szabó was a Hungarian jazz guitarist, famous for mixing jazz, pop-rock and his native Hungarian music.-Biography:...
recording, and on recordings with Archie Shepp
Archie Shepp
Archie Shepp is a prominent African-American jazz saxophonist. Shepp is best known for his passionately Afrocentric music of the late 1960s, which focused on highlighting the injustices faced by the African-Americans, as well as for his work with the New York Contemporary Five, Horace Parlan, and...
, Grover Washington, Jr.
Grover Washington, Jr.
Grover Washington, Jr. was an American jazz-funk / soul-jazz saxophonist. Along with George Benson, John Klemmer, David Sanborn, Bob James, Chuck Mangione, Herb Alpert, and Spyro Gyra, he is considered by many to be one of the founders of the smooth jazz genre.He wrote some of his material and...
, Snooky Young
Snooky Young
Eugene Edward "Snooky" Young was an American jazz trumpeter. He was known for his mastery of the plunger mute, with which he was able to create a wide range of sounds.-Biography:...
and Miles Davis
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...
.
He was a founding member of the band Stuff
Stuff (band)
Stuff was a New York-based jazz funk band active in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The members were Gordon Edwards , Richard Tee , Eric Gale , Cornell Dupree , Chris Parker , and later Steve Gadd...
, which featured fellow guitarist Eric Gale
Eric Gale
Eric J. Gale was a leading American jazz and session guitarist.Born in Brooklyn, New York, Gale began playing guitar at the age of 12. Although he majored in chemistry at Niagara University, Gale was determined to pursue a musical career, and began contributing to accompaniments for such stars as...
, Richard Tee
Richard Tee
Richard Tee was a pianist, studio musician, singer and arranger.Tee graduated from the High School of Music and Art and attended the Manhattan School of Music. Though better known as a studio and session musician, Tee led a jazz ensemble, the Richard Tee Committee, and was a founding member of the...
on keyboards, Steve Gadd
Steve Gadd
Steve Gadd is an American session and studio drummer, notable for his work with popular musicians from a wide range of genres.-Biography:...
and Chris Parker
Chris Parker
Christopher Parker may refer to:*Christopher Parker , British Member of Parliament for Clitheroe, Lancashire, 1708-1713*Christopher Parker , English actor and television presenter...
on drums, and Gordon Edwards on bass. Dupree and Tee recorded together on many occasions. Notable albums include the aforementioned Aretha and King Curtis records, plus Joe Cocker
Joe Cocker
John Robert "Joe" Cocker, OBE is an English rock and blues musician, composer and actor, who came to popularity in the 1960s, and is most known for his gritty voice, his idiosyncratic arm movements while performing, and his cover versions of popular songs, particularly those of The Beatles...
's Stingray
Stingray (album)
Stingray is the sixth studio album by Joe Cocker, released in 1976 .-Track listing:#"The Jealous Kind" - 3:51#"I Broke Down" - 3:29#"You Came Along" - 3:50...
and Luxury You Can Afford
Luxury You Can Afford
Luxury You Can Afford is the seventh studio album by Joe Cocker, released in 1978 on Asylum Records, his only release for that label.-Track listing:# "Fun Time" - 2:39# "Watching the River Flow" - 3:16...
, plus Cornell's solo albums Teasin, Saturday Night Fever (instrumental), Shadow Dancing, Can't Get Through, Coast to Coast, Uncle Funky, Child's Play, Bop 'n' Blues, and Unstuffed. He played on Brook Benton
Brook Benton
Brook Benton was an American singer and songwriter who was popular with rock and roll, rhythm and blues, and pop music audiences during the late 1950s and early 1960s, when he scored hits such as "It's Just A Matter Of Time" and "Endlessly", many of which he co-wrote.He made a comeback in 1970...
's "Rainy Night in Georgia
Rainy Night in Georgia
"Rainy Night in Georgia" is a song written by Tony Joe White in 1962 and popularized by R&B vocalist Brook Benton in 1970.In 1969, after several years without a major hit, Benton had signed to a new record label, Cotillion Records...
" and "Please Send Me Someone to Love", and is featured on two tracks of Peter Wolf's 1998 album, Fool's Parade
Fool's Parade
Fool's Parade is the fifth solo album by Peter Wolf, released in 1998 .-Track listing:#"Long Way Back Again" – 3:43#"Turnin' Pages" – 3:38#"Anything at All" Fool's Parade is the fifth solo album by Peter Wolf, released in 1998 (see 1998 in music).-Track listing:#"Long Way Back Again" (Will...
. He is also known for playing the opening guitar riff on Aretha Franklin's "Respect".
In December 1972, the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
music magazine, NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
, reported that Dupree, along with Roberta Flack
Roberta Flack
Roberta Flack is an American singer, songwriter, and musician who is notable for jazz, soul, R&B, and folk music...
and Jerry Jemmott
Jerry Jemmott
Gerald Joseph Stenhouse "Jerry" Jemmott is an American bass guitarist. Also known as Gerald "Fingers" Jemmott, Rasan Mfalme or "the Groovemaster", Jemmott was one of the chief session bassists of the late 1960s and early 1970s, working with many of the period's well known soul, blues, and jazz...
, had been injured in an auto accident in Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
.
(In modern times) Dupree used a Fender "red-knob" Twin Reverb and played a Yamaha
Yamaha
Yamaha may refer to:* Yamaha Corporation, a Japanese company with a wide range of products and services** Yamaha Motor Company, a Japanese motorized vehicle-producing company...
signature guitar called the Dupree Super Jam (it used to be a model similar to the SJ-550 HM, but now is closer to a three-pickup Pacifica with a maple neck).
In 2009, Dupree appeared in a documentary entitled Still Bill
Still Bill (film)
Still Bill is a 2009 documentary film about musician Bill Withers. It received its world premiere at the 2009 South by Southwest Film Festival...
, which chronicled the life and times of Bill Withers. He appeared on stage playing a guitar-led version of Grandma's Hands
Grandma's Hands
"Grandma's Hands" is a song written by Bill Withers about his own grandmother. It was included on his 1971 debut album Just as I Am, and was also released as a single, reaching number 18 on the Best Selling Soul Singles chart and 42 on the Billboard Hot 100.The song has since been covered by many...
. Bill Withers, at first, was sitting in the audience, but ended up joining him on stage to sing the lyrics to the song. In this part of the documentary, Dupree played his guitar on a stool, breathing using a oxygen machine, which foretell his suffering from emphysema
Emphysema
Emphysema is a long-term, progressive disease of the lungs that primarily causes shortness of breath. In people with emphysema, the tissues necessary to support the physical shape and function of the lungs are destroyed. It is included in a group of diseases called chronic obstructive pulmonary...
.
Dupree died on May 8, 2011 at his home in Fort Worth, Texas. He had been waiting for a lung transplant as a result of suffering from emphysema
Emphysema
Emphysema is a long-term, progressive disease of the lungs that primarily causes shortness of breath. In people with emphysema, the tissues necessary to support the physical shape and function of the lungs are destroyed. It is included in a group of diseases called chronic obstructive pulmonary...
.
As leader
- 1974: Teasin (Wounded BirdWounded Bird RecordsWounded Bird Records is a CD only, re-issue record label, that was founded in 1998 in Guilderland, New York. They re-release lesser known albums from both popular and lesser known artists, including Deborah Harry, Chic, David Blue, Marilyn Martin, Gordon Haskell, Jon Anderson, Adrian Belew, Ellen...
) - 1977: Saturday Night Fever (instrumental)
- 1979: Shadow Dancing
- 1988: Coast to Coast (Antilles RecordsAntilles RecordsAntilles Records was an American record label that was a subsidiary of Island Records.Its jazz catalog is now managed by Verve Records.-Discography:*1001 Joanne Brackeen - Special Identity 1981*1002 Biréli Lagrène- Routes To Django 1980...
) - 1991: Can't Get Through
- 1992: Uncle Funky (Live)
- 1993: Child's Play
- 1994: Bop 'n' Blues (Kokopelli RecordsKokopelli RecordsKokopelli Records was a record label established by jazz flautist Herbie Mann during the 1990s. Mann had previously established Embryo Records during his tenure at Atlantic Records.-Discography:*1994: Deep Pocket - Herbie Mann...
) - 2011: I'm Alright (Dialtone Records)
As sideman
With Gene HarrisGene Harris
Gene Harris was an American jazz pianist known for his warm sound and blues and gospel infused style that is known as soul jazz....
- Gene Harris of the Three SoundsGene Harris of the Three SoundsGene Harris of the Three Sounds is an album by American pianist Gene Harris recorded in 1972 and released on the Blue Note label. Although the is title refers to Harris' group The Three Sounds the album is usually recognised as a solo effort as none of the other original members of the group...
(Blue NoteBlue Note RecordsBlue Note Records is a jazz record label, established in 1939 by Alfred Lion and Max Margulis. Francis Wolff became involved shortly afterwards. It derives its name from the characteristic "blue notes" of jazz and the blues. At the end of the 1950s, and in the early 1960s, Blue Note headquarters...
, 1972)
With Marlena Shaw
Marlena Shaw
Marlena Shaw is an American singer. Shaw began her singing career in the 1960s and is still singing today. Her music has often been sampled in hip hop music, and used in television commercials.-Biography:She was first introduced to music by her uncle Jimmy Burgess, a jazz trumpet player...
- MarlenaMarlena (Marlena Shaw album)Marlena is an album by American vocalist Marlena Shaw recorded in 1972 and released on the Blue Note label. The album was Shaw's third release and her first for the Blue Note label.-Track listing:...
(Blue Note, 1972) - From the Depths of My SoulFrom the Depths of My SoulFrom the Depths of My Soul is an album by American vocalist Marlena Shaw recorded in 1973 and released on the Blue Note label.-Track listing:# "Prelude / I Know I Love Him" - 3:11# "Hum This Song" - 3:08# "But For Now" - 3:48# "Easy Evil" - 3:39...
(Blue Note, 1973)