Malcolm "Molly" Duncan (24 August 1945 – 8 October 2019) was a Scottish tenor saxophonist, and founding member of
Average White Band
The Average White Band (also known as AWB) was a Scottish funk and R&B band that had a series of soul and disco hits between 1974 and 1980. They were best known for their million-selling instrumental track " Pick Up the Pieces", and their alb ...
.
Career
Malcolm "Molly" Duncan recorded with
Ray Charles
Ray Charles Robinson (September 23, 1930 – June 10, 2004) was an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. He is regarded as one of the most iconic and influential musicians in history, and was often referred to by contemporaries as "The Gen ...
,
Tom Petty
Thomas Earl Petty (October 20, 1950October 2, 2017) was an American singer, songwriter, and musician. He was the leader and frontman of the Rock music, rock bands Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and Mudcrutch and a member of the late 1980s sup ...
,
Buddy Guy
George "Buddy" Guy (born July 30, 1936) is an American blues guitarist and singer. He is an exponent of Chicago blues who has influenced generations of guitarists including Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Keith Richards, Stevie Ray Vaug ...
,
Ben E. King,
Dire Straits
Dire Straits were a British rock band formed in London in 1977 by Mark Knopfler (lead vocals, lead guitar), David Knopfler (rhythm guitar, backing vocals), John Illsley (bass guitar, backing vocals) and Pick Withers (drums, percussion). Th ...
,
Bryan Ferry
Bryan Ferry (born 26 September 1945) is an English singer and songwriter. He became known as the frontman of the band Roxy Music and also launched a solo career. His voice has been described as an "elegant, seductive croon". He also established ...
and many others and played live with artists including
Marvin Gaye
Marvin Pentz Gaye Jr. (; April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984) was an American Rhythm and blues, R&B and soul singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer. He helped shape the sound of Motown in the 1960s, first as an in-house session player an ...
,
Chaka Khan
Yvette Marie Stevens (born March 23, 1953), better known by her stage name Chaka Khan ( ), is an American singer. Known as the " Queen of Funk", her career has spanned more than five decades beginning in the early 1970s as the lead vocalist of ...
and
Eric Clapton
Eric Patrick Clapton (born 1945) is an English Rock music, rock and blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He is regarded as one of the most successful and influential guitarists in rock music. Clapton ranked second in ''Rolling Stone''s l ...
. In the late 1990s and early 2000s he collaborated with many
drum and bass
Drum and bass (commonly abbreviated as DnB, D&B, or D'n'B) is a genre of electronic dance music characterised by fast Break (music)#Breakbeat (element of music), breakbeats (typically 165–185 Tempo, beats per minute) with heavy Bass (music) ...
artists, including Intense, of which his son Dan Duncan is a member. These recordings were mostly released on the
Good Looking Records
Good Looking Records is a Jungle music, jungle and drum and bass record label, founded in 1991 by producer LTJ Bukem. The label specializes in jazz-influenced and atmospheric Intelligent drum and bass, intelligent Drum and bass, drum & bass.
Ov ...
label.
He collaborated with other studio musicians to form Knee Deep, a funk and fusion group; and Cold Sweat and the Horny Horns.
In July 2015, Malcolm "Molly" Duncan, along, with
Steve Ferrone
Stephen A. Ferrone (born 25 April 1950) is an English drummer. He is known as a member of the rock band Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers from 1994 to 2017, replacing original drummer Stan Lynch, and as part of the "classic lineup" of the Aver ...
and
Hamish Stuart
James Hamish Stuart (born 8 October 1949) is a Scottish guitarist, bassist, singer, composer and record producer. He was an original member of the Average White Band.
Biography
Born in Glasgow, Scotland, Stuart attended Queens Park School ...
reunited to form The 360 Band. This was in essence one half of the original
Average White Band
The Average White Band (also known as AWB) was a Scottish funk and R&B band that had a series of soul and disco hits between 1974 and 1980. They were best known for their million-selling instrumental track " Pick Up the Pieces", and their alb ...
. They released an album titled ''Three Sixty'' in 2017 and performed live together along with supporting musicians.
Death
Duncan died at his home in
Bocholt, Germany
Bocholt () is a city in the north-west of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, part of the district Borken. It is situated 4 km ( miles) south of the border with the Netherlands. Suderwick is part of Bocholt and is situated at the border annex ...
on 7 October 2019, at age 74, shortly after it had been announced that he had been diagnosed with terminal cancer.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Duncan, Molly
1945 births
2019 deaths
21st-century British saxophonists
Alumni of the University of Dundee
Average White Band members
Scottish saxophonists
People from Montrose, Angus
The Bunch members
20th-century British saxophonists
Alumni of Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design