Biography
DUNCAN MACQUEEN
Music, in particular, drums… has been with me for as long as I can remember. I started playing around the age of age 8. I remember playing drums for morning assembly and in the E.Kew (Melbourne) state school band. Being the son the artist (see Video page) I was encouraged at an early age to study drums and did so under the tutelage of Jack Hunter who played on and in everything from TV to the MSO (Melbourne Symphony Orchestra). He taught me the legitimate game, how to survive playing in whatever paying gig came my way. This was the 60’s and a very exciting time for music in Melbourne. At first I played mostly modern jazz (Ray Quon Quartet at the Playboy Club,Toorak Rd, and the ‘Fat Black Pussycat’ across the road – (photo in Music Pics) but became interested in the rock scene and joined the Premiers – which at the time was the backing group for the Bee Gees when they were in town, and were the house rock band at the Palais theatre St Kilda. At the same time, traditional jazz was very popular in Melbourne, and I played with a group that took this a step further than the traditional bands of the time, and that was in the Chicago style. This band called the Chicagoans led by Steve Waddell, was very popular and appeared regularly on In Melbourne Tonight and played concerts at the Myer Music bowl and the Dendy theatre, (see promotional material in Music Pics). Playing traditional and contemporary jazz in this period included the Bob Sedergreen quartet at the Nepean Hotel (the Nipin) Portsea for summer seasons.
In 1971 I toured Vietnam with a show band (Phoenix) entertaining the US troops.
On returning to Australia, Gus Richard the bass player and I, brought in Greg Cook on guitar (who had just returned from the UK playing with the Mixtures) and continue as Phoenix. After playing at the Adelaide arts festival, Gus and I joined the exodus of Australia musicians and artists, and went off to the UK. Greg stayed in Oz.
I stayed in a house in Wembley with 3 great Oz musician, Russell Smith trumpet (on the right in the Ray Quon Trio photo) Tony Buchanan sax and Ed Wilson of the Daily Wilson big band who was doing session work in London. Russell, Tony and myself played in a night club in London until we went our separate ways. Tony went off with Maynard Ferguson band, Russell stayed in London for a while longer and I went off to the US. During this time in London, I came close to joining the group Bad Finger from the Beatles stable. I spent a day in the group mansion, but they finally decided that they had to have a drummer from Liverpool, as they were close to the Beatles and wanted the Liverpool image.
I then went off to the US with a band called the Denham sound, which was made up of guys from a classical music college in Denham Norfolk (see Music Pics) This was a great band and could play anything. Off we went to California to play in a club in Palm Springs that Frank Sinatra was in the process of buying. What a time that was. During this time I met and played with some influential LA musicians and started to get into the LA scene. But it was time for another move, so I went off to visit relatives in Texas, and continued on to Nashville. I did very well in Nashville and was helped by an Australian producer Bill Walker who has produced everybody in the country music scene and is still going. I got straight into the scene there and was even booked to play at the Grand Old Opry which usually takes a long time, but being young and crazy, I went on back to California for a gig I had already signed a contract for… that was a major cross road, if I had of stayed in Nashville, I would still be there in the studio scene.
But I don’t regret going to San Francisco, that has become my favourite city and I lived and played there for the next 8 years. Principally in two bands: Corley Levens and Macqueen, and then Maiden Voyage named after a composition by Herbie Hancock. I worked constantly with CL and M playing clubs and gigs in San Francisco until Steve Corley left the group I then re-formed it with Curt Levens as Maiden Voyage. We were the house band at a jazz club in San Rafael called the Barrel House Owned by a well known and respected jazz singer from Chicago – Toni Lee Scott – and her husband… they lived up-stairs and would crit us from what they heard through the floor.
For many years during my time in the US, one of my best friends and music collaborator was Tommy Reed. Tommy was lead guitarist with the Everly Brothers and a studio musician in LA. He was on many of the hits out of LA in the 60’s. Unfortunately, Tommy was killed when he ran off the road coming home from a gig late one night… but for me, he still plays on.
After San Francisco, I decided it was time to head south. And so, after moving to LA, or close, (this was the first time) we moved to Palm Springs – 120 miles (200 km) from LA… 5 days a week, I would drive to Hollywood for rehearsals and then back in the evening to Play at a country rock club in Palm Springs, a 240 miles a day commute. This band in LA was made up of exceptionally good musicians, and was well backed and set-up to be launched on a major TV show. Unfortunately, the leader of the group finally became too much for us in his demands, and we all quit.
To make a living through this period, I was playing with a very popular country rock band called Country Fever. We were sponsored by Budweiser and it was a lot of fun, see Misic Pics. So, after all this, I was ready for a change from the music business. I decided to get out of music for a while and back to engineering.
My brother introduced me to the seismic exploration business, and I loved it – digital recording in the early days. I was still involved with music, and in fact, after moving back to Australia with my wife in 1980, became very active in the Perth jazz scene. Part of this was playing at the Perth jazz society backing such US touring players as Buddy Tate and Cal Collins. I also played regularly on the ABC through this period, and have managed to keep recordings of two concerts that were recorded by the ABC, one the Ron Young Jazz Band at Winthrop Hall University of WA, and one with the Helen Mathews band at the Perth jazz society, I will post these when I have figured out the best way to do it.
In 1987, we figured it was time to get back to the Big Smoke, so off to LA again… and this time, taking a break from the oil patch, got into the studio scene working for 3 years with Jerry Marcelino and Hal Davis who were very influential producers at Motown. Sequencing had come along by then, so my ‘session’ playing consisted of arranging and playing my parts into a drum sequencer and then editing before inclusion in the final mix. My job with them was drummer, programer, and engineer. I ended up Creative Director with Rize Productions which was owned by Jerry Marcelino (see Music Pics). Our distributer was Al Bell, the founder of Stax records. It was quite an experience to sit through the reminisces of these people who had been such a major part of the R & B recording industry.
This was invaluable experience which has led me to have a recording studio at home.
But again I became disillusioned with the L.A. scene and again went back to oil exploration, but you can’t keep me away from music, so in the late 90‘s and early 2000‘s I played with a funk band in Houston called the Funkshunatics, and in Austin Texas with Turtle Creek… recording an album with them in the Austin music style.
Now, back in Australia and living in the Noosa Hinterland, my involvement in music takes the form of productions I do out of my home studio and giging around Noosa and the Sunshine Coast. As I have retired from DMA Geophysical Services, I am able to do whatever productions and playing jobs that seem right at the time recording and playing music both for its own sake, and as background to my videos. See Music Gigs Photos and Tracks page for current activity.
On the art side, I am now board member and ex President of the Cooroy Future Group: https://cooroyfuturegroup.com.au which has responsibility for operating the Butter Factory Arts Centre in Cooroy:
http://butterfactoryartscentre.com.au – a refurbished ex butter factory and now Gallery and centre for art related activities and workshops.
Currently, in this time of Covid-19, I am holding an exhibition at the Noosa Regional Gallery with the director Michael Brennan on my mother the artist: ‘Mary Macqueen a Retrospective’, here is a link to the talk on my mother I videoed from home:
Today (May 28 2020) we have pleasure in announcing that a conversation recorded with Victorian artist-printmaker, Mary MacQueen, is now available from the Cultural Conversations web site. This conversations follows a different style to our usual conversations because Mary died in 1994, long before we could include her in our usual interview program. This conversation was recorded by her family and is provided courtesy of Mary’s family and estate. Enjoy this fascinating glimpse into the life and work of this amazing artist.
http://cultconv.com/…/MacQueen_…/HTML5/testimonybrowser.html