From working with music heavyweights like Frank Zappa and Jean-Luc Ponty to embarking upon a successful solo career and producing in between, George Duke is truly the face of modern jazz music. Duke has jammed with musicians of all types, and his dozens of hit songs and albums have even gained the jazz virtuoso two Grammy Awards for Best Jazz Vocal albums in 2000 and 2001 for In the Moment: Live in Concert and The Calling: Celebrating Sarah Vaughan, respectively.

Everything that George Duke has in the music world he's gotten from church and Duke Ellington. Growing up in San Rafael, California, Duke's first run-in with jazz music occurred when he was just four years old, when his mother took him to see Ellington play in concert. Duke began playing the piano at age seven and furthered his musical background by absorbing every possible style and inflection of the Black music played in his local Baptist church. By the time he was 16, Duke was playing in high school jazz groups, and after high school he studied trombone and composition at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Receiving a Bachelor of Music degree in 1967, Duke began playing San Francisco's jazz circuits with Al Jarreau, going back to get a Masters degree in composition from San Francisco State University.

In the late ‘60s, Duke teamed up with violinist Jean-Luc Ponty and the George Duke Trio, garnering incredible amounts of fame along the way. This attention led to collaborations with Frank Zappa, and Duke shortly thereafter began working with Julian "Cannonball" Adderly. After spending the rest of the ‘60s and early ‘70s playing with various groups and artists, Duke embarked on a solo career in 1976 and garnered several hits on the Billboard charts before turning to the producing aspect of music, working with artists like Barry Manilow, Smokey Robinson and the Pointer Sisters through the years while also continuing to release solo albums through the 2000s.