Jack McDuff was an organist from Champaign, Illinois who started his career as a bass player for Joe Farrell. By the 50’s he started playing organ and put a band together with George Benson, Red Holloway and Joe Dukes. His early recordings as a bandleader were on the Prestige label. Brother Jack, The Honeydripper, Brother Jack Meets The Boss and Screamin’ are considered classic albums from this era of his career. He left the Prestige recording company and joined Atlantic’s roster for a while until he ended up on Blue Note in the late ’60’s. “Oblighetto” is from the 1969 album Moon Rappin’ which is noted for use of funk. The J.Dilla version of the song appears on 2004’s Blue Note Revisited release. McDuff was still recording and performing up until the time of his death in 2001. J.Dilla, hip-hop producer extraordinaire, passed in 2006.
