Geoff "Jeff" Stephen Duff, or Duffo, (born 1956) is an Australian singer/
cabaret
Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music, song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, a casino, a hotel, a restaurant, or a nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining or d ...
performer in the
tenor
A tenor is a type of classical music, classical male singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The lo ...
range, who in his career has used various personae, wardrobe, and satire as features of his performance. Duff's shows ''Ziggy'' and ''Bowie Unzipped'' are portrayals of the music of
David Bowie
David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer-songwriter and actor. A leading figure in the music industry, he is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the ...
, whom he met while Bowie was a Sydney resident.
Duff began his musical career in Melbourne in 1971 as a lead singer of the jazz-rock fusion band, Kush (1971–75).
Career
Kush was formed with Jeff Duff on vocals, John Santos (aka Montesante) and Colin Chapman on trumpet, Ron Anderson on piano and saxophone, Stephen Ball on keyboards, Tom Cowburn on guitar, harmonica and backing vocals, John Ellis on clarinet, flute and saxophone, Rob Matthews on bass guitar, and Graham McDonald on drums. They released covers of "
Peter Gunn", "
MacArthur Park
MacArthur Park (originally Westlake Park) is a park dating back to the late 19th century in the Westlake, Los Angeles, Westlake neighborhood of Los Angeles. In the early 1940s, it was renamed after General Douglas MacArthur, and later designated ...
" and "
Walk on the Wild Side", as well as originals such as "(Livin' on) Easy Street"
Kush is notable for performing to 45,000 people at the 1974
Sunbury Pop Festival, "conceived and promoted as Australia's Woodstock".
Duff relocated to London in 1978 as "the waif-like androgynous oddball Duffo"
His keyboard player and arranger for most of this period was
Sev Lewkowicz
Sev Lewkowicz (born 15 February 1951, in London, England) is a musical composer, producer, arranger and keyboard player based in the United Kingdom. He has played and recorded with Mungo Jerry, Dennis Locorriere, Any Trouble, Tim Smit, Sarah Mi ...
. Duff has released four albums under the name Duffo - four between 1979–82 and a fifth, ''Ground Control to Frank Sinatra'' in 2004.
The beginning of the "Duffo" period saw his single, "Give Me Back Me Brain" reach No. 60 on the
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...
in 1979.
Powderworks issued Duff's third album, ''Bob the Birdman'', in Australia.
His 1999 compilation, ''Martian Girls Are Easy'', is a 40-track, double CD anthology covering Duff's solo career from 1978, described by music historian, Ian McFarlane as showing "the satirical, new wave origins of 'Give Me Back Me Brain', through the soulful classical arrangement of Lou Reed's 'Walk on the Wild Side', dipping into funk on the way and then back to his glam roots"
Jeff Duff appears as 'Secta' in the Australian science fiction movie,
''Sons of Steel'', released in 1989, featuring Duff's single, "Here Come the Freaks".
Performances
Duff has performed on Australian television, and has headlined the Melbourne Jazz Festival, Manly Jazz Festival, Darling Harbor Jazz Festival, Casino Jazz, Thredbo Jazz Festival, Noosa Jazz Festival, and the 2006 Adelaide Cabaret Festival.
Duff performs regularly at Sydney's live music venues. He juxtaposes his sophisticated twenty-piece big band swing repertoire with the raunchy glam rock of his Alien Sex Gods shows.
Recent projects
Duff's ''Ground control to Frank Sinatra'' project merges the styles of
David Bowie
David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer-songwriter and actor. A leading figure in the music industry, he is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the ...
and
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Chairman of the Board" and later called "Ol' Blue Eyes", Sinatra was one of the most popular ...
. The show features dancers, singers, audiovisuals and a nine-piece band. ''Ground control to Frank Sinatra'' Duff's stage show has produced two albums: ''Ground Control to Frank Sinatra'' and ''Lost in the Stars''.
He has paid homage to Bowie in a show called ''Ziggy'', which is a concert production featuring members of Jimmy Barnes band, Noiseworks and Leo Sayer's band. The ''Ziggy'' show performed at the
Sydney Opera House
The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre in Sydney. Located on the foreshore of Sydney Harbour, it is widely regarded as one of the world's most famous and distinctive buildings and a masterpiece of 20th-century architec ...
in 2010, and September 2012.
Jeff Duff's official David Bowie tribute is the ''Bowie Unzipped'' show which has been playing around Australia since 2016 and features a rotating list of Australia's top musicians including Glenn Rhodes on keyboards, bass and vocals, Jak Housden on guitar and vocals, Jess Ciampa on drums, percussion and vocals, Gordon Rytmeister on drums, Rex Goh on guitar, Paul Berton on guitar and Paul Mason on guitar. The Bowie Unzipped band has played to sell out shows in both Sydney and Melbourne and continues to tour around the country.
Duff released his tell-all memoir ''This Will Explain Everything'' through Melbourne Books in 2016. After reading the book Alan Howe in ''
The Australian
''The Australian'', with its Saturday edition, ''The Weekend Australian'', is a broadsheet newspaper published by News Corp Australia since 14 July 1964.Bruns, Axel. "3.1. The active audience: Transforming journalism from gatekeeping to gatew ...
'' newspaper, said that 'Duff was a musical pioneer and perhaps the most fearless artist in the country.'
Discography
Charting singles
Further reading
* Note: Archived
n-linecopy has limited functionality.
* Note:
n-lineversion established at White Room Electronic Publishing Pty Ltd.,
in 2007 and was expanded from the 2002 edition.
* Duff, Jeff (2016) ''This Will Explain Everything'' (Melbourne Books, Melbourne)
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Duff, Jeff
1950 births
Living people
Australian male singers