Duncan

What do bands like ALAN PARSON'S PROJECT, BUDGIE and CAMEL have in common? The logical answer would be very little, but the truth is that the common denominator is DUNCAN MACKAY, a guy who paradoxically completed his studios in Violin (He was elected the most promising violin player in UK at the age of 11) but was famous for his keyboard performances…

The last time cellist Yo-Yo Ma teamed with bassist Edgar Meyer and mandolin player Chris Thile (of Nickel Creek and Punch Brothers fame) for a classical/bluegrass hybrid, the result was the gold-selling Songs of Joy & Peace. Here, Ma, Meyer, and Thile are joined by fiddler Stuart Duncan in a different kind of string quartet.

Duncan Browne's self-titled second album plays like a direct sequel to his debut long-player, Give Me Take You; he uses the same acoustic guitar and writes in a similar idiom, especially on tracks like "Country Song" and "The Martlet." Indeed, apart from the fact that it's generally better recorded, most of Duncan Browne could easily have slotted into the earlier album; the only exceptions are the more elaborately produced songs, such as "Ragged Rain Life," with its electric guitar sound, the keyboard-embellished "Babe Rainbow," and the bluesier, Dylan-esque "Journey," which was a substantial hit in England…

Lesley Duncan’s debut album was a modestly engaging slice of early-’70s singer/songwriter rock, though not distinctive enough amidst a rapidly crowding field to command attention.

Isadora Duncan, the Biggest Dancer in the World - by Ken Russell (1966)

Isadora Duncan was another self-taught primitive whose art was often regarded as a joke, and Isadora Duncan: The Biggest Dancer in the World gives the viewer ammunition to see her as a self-absorbed, hedonistic, loud and crass sham—except that she also clearly isn’t. As played by the brassy, unglamorous Vivian Pickles and with sympathetic narration by Sewell Stokes, who knew her, we understand Duncan as a courageous woman insisting on her freedom in a difficult life.

Some of the most Chicago-sounding bluesmen didn't grow up in the Windy City but rather were people who moved there after growing up in the Deep South. Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, Bo Diddley, Jimmy Reed, Elmore James, and Howlin' Wolf are perfect examples; all of them were born in Mississippi, but ultimately, Chicago was the place that did the most to shape their musical identity. Despite their Mississippi roots, all of them became closely identified with electric Chicago blues instead of acoustic Mississippi country blues of the Son House/Robert Johnson/Charley Patton variety - and Little Arthur Duncan is another example of a Mississippi native who moved to the Windy City, was greatly influenced by Chess Records, and wholeheartedly embraced the electric blues of his adopted home…