Doug Duke Biography

Douglas Duke did it all - toured the U.S. with Lionel Hampton and a number of other bands, worked with a trio in the small jazz houses of New York City, toured Western Europe and South America with singer Sarah Vaughn and other performers, appeared on television in the U.S. and in Europe, performed as a jazz organ/piano soloist, cut several records for Philips and Decca and even opened his own club at 4449 Lake Avenue in his home town of Rochester, New York. He liked to call his club “The Music Room.” 

About his friend, Doug Duke, Walter Dixon had this to say,  “Doug Duke’s life was just a love affair with music and everything else. Everything he did, he did very well…and that included building and racing boats, racing sports cars, flying his own plane and modifying electric organs.”   When Doug Duke died on November 23, 1973, Walter Dixon lamented,  “At his best he could play rings around anybody else in the business” but he was never able to reach a wider audience of people who could “understand what he was trying to do.” None of Mr. Duke’s recordings “show the greatness of which he was capable; his death is such a loss because now that can never happen.”  Fortunately, Mr. Dixon made it a point to preserve nearly thirty hours of his recording sessions with the man whose music he so greatly admired. 

Born in 1920 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Mr. Duke was the son of a concert violinist father and a vocalist mother.  He was brought to Rochester, NY, his mother’s hometown, when he was 2 years old.

Coming Soon:  A comprehensive biographical sketch of Mr. Duke’s professional career including audio clips from Paul Preo and Lionel Hampton plus quotes from notables such as Marion McPartland.  Interesting facts about his personal life will also appear on this page.

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