Jack McDuff
Eugene McDuffy (September 17, 1926 – January 23, 2001 Champaign, Ill), known professionally as “Brother” Jack McDuff or “Captain” Jack McDuff, was an American jazz organist and organ trio bandleader. He was most prominent during the hard bop and soul jazz era of the 1960s, often performing with an organ trio. He is also credited with giving guitarist George Benson his first break. Despite having health problems, McDuff continued working and recording throughout the 1980s and 1990s, and he toured Japan with Atsuko Hashimoto in 2000. “Capt’n” Jack McDuff, as he later became known, died of heart failure at the age of 74 in Minneapolis, Minneapolis. His first wife, the former Dink Dixon, died in the early 1980s. McDuff was married to his second wife Kathy; Kathy had two children.