Aretha Franklin's classic R&B standard,"Respect", kicks off with a fat horn- section downbeat, and a funky guitar riff with a tough tone. Duh Duh Duh, Duh Duh Duh. One of many signature contributions by the great studio guitarist, Cornell Dupree. Dupree died on Sunday, at the age of 69, of pulmonary disease while awaiting a lung transplant.
From Steve Hughey , for allmusic.com ...
A veteran of over 2,500 recording sessions, guitarist Cornell Dupree worked most prolifically in R&B and blues, but he was equally at home in jazz, particularly funky fusion and soul-jazz. Dupree was born in Fort Worth, TX, in 1942, and by the age of 20 was playing in King Curtis' R&B group. He became a session musician soon after, playing on Brook Benton's "Rainy Night in Georgia," as well as records by stars like Lou Rawls, Paul Simon, Barbra Streisand, Harry Belafonte, Lena Horne, Roberta Flack, Joe Cocker, Michael Bolton, Mariah Carey, and countless others. Dupree was also a member of Aretha Franklin's touring band from 1967-1976, and during that time also became a presence on many jazz-funk recordings, the sort that would find favor with rare groove and acid jazz fans in the years to come.
From his obituary in Variety ...
Known as "Mr. 2500" (for the number of recording sessions on which he reputedly played) and "Uncle Funky," Dupree established himself as a studio star at Atlantic Records in the '60s. Over the years he cut freelance dates with Miles Davis, B.B. King, Ray Charles, Herbie Mann, James Brown and Jimmy Smith, to name just a handful of his most notable employers.
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With Curtis, Dupree became part of the nucleus of Atlantic's New York house band, which included keyboardist Richard Tee and drummer Bernard "Pretty" Purdie. He can be heard on Brook Benton's "Rainy Night in Georgia," the celebrated "Live at the Fillmore West" albums recorded in 1971 by Curtis and Aretha Franklin and sets by such '70s Atlantic stars as Donny Hathaway and Roberta Flack. He was a member of Franklin's touring band from 1967-76.
He was an original member of the Saturday Night Live band, a fixture of the New York recording scene for four decades, and he played on some of my very favorite records, from Paul Simon to Miles Davis and Donny Hathaway. He recorded 8 albums with his band, Stuff.
You can read a long list of recording credits at allmusic.
