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Jacob Duncan

Jacob Duncan’s musical path has been a fascinating one, consistently balancing a spiritual, intuitive inclination with a keen, educated intelligence. Band leader, composer, arranger and force of nature saxophonist, Duncan’s ensemble playing is as empathetically assured as his soloing is riskily rewarding. Beginning on alto sax at age eleven, the Louisville, Kentucky native soon distinguished himself as the kid who could play. He graduated from the prestigious Interlochen Arts Academy, played lead alto in the Yamaha Big Band in high school, and won a music scholarship to the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas, where he was a member of the world-renowned One O’Clock Lab Band, Little Jack Melody and his Young Turks, and other stimulating outlets, including his own Liberation Prophecy.

After graduation and reading “way too much beat literature,” Duncan flew to Lisbon on a one-way ticket with alto in tow, $500, and very little else. Playing on street corners, French jazz clubs, hanging with musicians, hitchhiking, or enjoying a peripatetic existence based upon the proverbial “kindness of strangers,” he survived and thrived in Europe.

On returning to the States, the siren call of New York got the better of him and he settled there for a time; a day gig at a coffee house kept him afloat while he played countless sessions, gigged endlessly at Nimrod’s and the Knitting Factory, and reassembled Liberation Prophecy as a sextet. Eventually frustrated by stress, rehearsal conflicts, and a steady diet of ramen noodles and bad poetry, a cruise ship tour of duty seemed like a solution.

Duncan traveled far and wide, from Unalaska in the Aleutian Islands, to Ushuaia, Argentina (Tierra Del Fuego), to Southeast Asia—Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Philippines, and Singapore, and to numerous ports of call in New Zealand. Finally, he returned to his own Louisville, Kentucky, “home of Muhammad Ali and Hunter S. Thompson,” as he proudly points out.

Since his homecoming, Duncan’s become a father to an incredible boy, met many amazing musicians and artists, and developed great friendships. He makes music with scores of creative musicians, including Chris Fortner, Kris Eans, Mike Hyman, Carly Johnson,  Jason Tiemann, Todd Hildreth, Harry Pickens, Chuck Marohnic, Amber Estes,  Craig Wagner,  John Goldsby, Dick Sisto, and Chris Fitzgerald among others, as well as many artists from the visual, movement, and writing art forms.

He’s also had the pleasure of playing or recording with everyone from Aretha Franklin to Norah Jones to Debbie Boone, the Violent Femmes to the Louisville Orchestra, Will Oldham to Ben Sollee, Rachel Grimes to Helen Money, and the list goes on.

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68
Album Review

Jacob Duncan: It's Alright To Dream featuring JD Allen

Read "It's Alright To Dream featuring JD Allen" reviewed by Glenn Astarita


In many instances, saxophone summits are ballsy blowouts steeped in performing jazz standards, especially when the hornists are used to leading their own bands, and they just want to get down to business in the studio. But such is not the case here, thanks to superb Louisville, KY-based saxophonist Jacob Duncan's (Norah Jones, Aretha Franklin) original compositions that add a harmonious cohesion to this session. The quintet features NY-based poll-winning tenor sax artisan JD Allen, who has been releasing widely ...

20
Album Review

Jacob Duncan: The Busker

Read "The Busker" reviewed by Glenn Astarita


Hailing from Louisville, KY., saxophonist Jacob Duncan (Liberation Prophecy) plays his horn with vocal attributes on this trio endeavor that provides a storyline to his travels in the US and abroad. He was a busker (street entertainer) performing his craft near train stations, office complexes and so on, perhaps brightening the days and injecting a little joy into the life of a casual observer. Duncan's musical storyboard is augmented by a crystalline audio production--where you could probably hear ...

5
Album Review

Jacob Duncan: Invisible House

Read "Invisible House" reviewed by Nicholas F. Mondello


Since the politically and culturally turbulent 60s, the word liberation has been incorporated into titles of collectives--remember the radical “Symbionese Liberation Army" and the certainly less violent, but still highly influential “Liberation Orchestra" of bassist Charlie Haden? Even song and album titles from groups as diverse as The Pet Shop Boys and Earth, Wind and Fire have glommed the word for appropriate thematic effect. Perhaps people everywhere just wanna be free, as The Rascals sang back when. ...

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……..Jacob Duncan’s haunting alto work builds to a crescendo of creativity.

-Chuck Vecoli

…he hits you with flash and power, and he traps you with the kind of playing that just grabs you.

-This is Books Music

…Jacob Duncan’s playing on The Innkeeper’s Gun] winds through eight compositions defined by an identity characterized by its own mood, which is of a strict internal consistency, and moves between the rich and expressive nuances of Sonny Rollins, the sharp and staggered trajectories of Ornette Coleman, and the borderline ascetic phrases of Lee Konitz.

–Voncenzo Roggero (AAJ)

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Primary Instrument

Saxophone, alto

Location

Louisville

Willing to teach

Beginner to advanced

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