How Minneapolis helped jazz legend Jack McDuff turn over a new leaf

Brother Jack McDuff hit the nightclub circuit like a whirlwind throughout the early ‘60s, blending the bite of hard bop (itself imbued with the jump-swing of Count Basie) with the fatback, marinating blues of the organ-jazz craze that his quartet helped extend. 

There was tenor saxophonist Red Hollway, a big barrel of a man with a tone to match. The hotshot teenager on guitar was none other than George Benson, stoking a seemingly unending series of tasty, agile licks that bulged the pocket set by the grooving rhythm section; drummer Joe Dukes, and, of course, the organist and bandleader himself. 

McDuff wrote or arranged nearly everything on the setlist and wasn’t afraid to solo last after Holloway and Benson had wowed the crowd. Dressed to the nines, his white-tipped hair combed up in a tight flip over his dark brown skin and a pencil-thin mustache, his swagger was musical and physical both — living large in his mid-20s.&nb...