Donald "Duck" Dunn
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| Donald "Duck" Dunn | |
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| Born | November 24, 1941 Memphis, Tennessee |
Donald "Duck" Dunn (born November 24, 1941) is an American bass guitarist, record producer, and songwriter. Dunn is notable for the "feel" and groove of his 1960s recordings with Booker T. & the MGs and as a session bassist for Stax records, which specialized in Blues and Gospel-infused southern soul and Memphis soul music styles. Dunn also performed on recordings with Muddy Waters, Freddie King, Jerry Lee Lewis, Eric Clapton, Tom Petty, Guy Sebastian and Rod Stewart.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Early life
Dunn was born in Memphis, Tennessee. Nicknamed "Duck" while watching Disney cartoons with his father one day, Dunn grew up playing sports and riding his bike with fellow future professional musician Steve Cropper. After Cropper began playing guitar with a friend named Charlie Freeman, Dunn decided to pick up the bass guitar. Eventually, along with drummer Terry Johnson, the four became "The Royal Spades". The Messick High School group picked up keyboardist Jerry "Smoochy" Smith, singer Ronnie Angel (also known as Stoots), and a budding young horn section in baritone saxophone player Don Nix, tenor saxophone player Charles "Packy" Axton, as well as trumpeter (and future co-founder of The Memphis Horns) Wayne Jackson.
[edit] 1960s: first bands
Cropper has noted how the self-taught Dunn started out playing along with records, filling in what he thought should be there. "That's why Duck Dunn's bass lines are very unique[sic] ", Cropper said, "They're not locked into somebody's schoolbook somewhere". Axton's mother Estelle and her brother Jim Stewart owned Satellite Records and signed the group, who would have a national hit with "Last Night" in 1961 under their new name "The Mar-Keys". The bassist on "Last Night" was (Donald "Duck" Dunn).
Booker T and the M.G.'S (Memphis Group) was founded by (Steve Cropper) and (Booker T. Jones) in 1962.
While Cropper, Jones, Steinberg, and drummer Al Jackson, Jr. enjoyed the success of the MGs' smash "Green Onions", the original Mar-Keys went on to further music projects. In the future, Booker T. & the MGs plus The Memphis Horns were also known as The Mar-Keys. Dunn continued to do session work with the rest of the MGs at Stax Records (formerly Satellite). He worked with his brother, Robert Dunn at King Records Distributorship while also playing sessions at Stax Records in Memphis. In 1964, Dunn permanately replaced Steinberg.
[edit] Late 1960s-1970s: session musician
Stax became known for Jackson's drum sound, the sound of The Memphis Horns, and Duck Dunn's grooves. The MGs and Dunn's bass lines on songs like Otis Redding's "Respect" and "I Can't Turn You Loose", Sam & Dave's "Hold On! I'm Comin'", and Albert King's "Born Under a Bad Sign", were influential. After Dunn, Cropper, Jackson, and Jones recorded 1967's Hip Hug-Her album, they became known as more than just the Stax house band that did "Green Onions".
As an instrumental group, they continued to stretch themselves on McLemore Avenue (their reworking of The Beatles' Abbey Road album) and on their final outing, 1971's Melting Pot where Dunn's bass;lines continues to be a source of inspiration for Rap and hip-hop artists. In the 1970s, with Jones and Cropper gone from Stax, Dunn and Jackson remained, playing and producing. Even though they felt more and more alienated by new political forces above, they stayed with the company.
[edit] 1980s-2000s
Dunn went on to play for Muddy Waters, Freddie King, and Jerry Lee Lewis, as well as Eric Clapton and Rod Stewart. He reunited with Cropper as a member of Levon Helm's RCO All Stars and also displayed his quirky Southern humor making two movies with Cropper, former Stax drummer Willie Hall, and Dan Aykroyd, as a member of The Blues Brothers band. Dunn has recently supported Neil Young live and in the studio and still plays with Cropper and Jones, usually with the late Al Jackson's cousin Steve Potts on drums, as Booker T. & the MGs.
In 1998, Dunn collaborated with Fender to produce a signature bass, a candy apple red-colored model based on the late 1950s style, with a gold anodized pickguard, split-coil humbucking pickup and vintage hardware. The Duck Dunn P-Bass became the basis for a Skyline Series signature bass made by Chicago bass company Lakland a few years later. In 2005, Dunn's first grandchild, Michael was born. In the 2000s, Dunn was in semi-retirement, although he still performs occasionally with Booker T & the MGs at clubs and music festivals. In 2007 Dunn and several Booker T. & the MGs members (Lewie Steinberg, Booker T. Jones, Steve Cropper, and wife of the late Al Jackson, Barbara Jackson) were given a "Lifetime Achievement" Grammy award for their contributions to popular music.
