Malcolm 'Molly' Duncan

Malcolm "Molly" Duncan (24 August 1945 – 8 October 2019; Montrose, Angus, Scotland) was a Scottish tenor saxophonist, best known as a founding member of the funk and R&B band Average White Band.
 

Early Life

Duncan was born in Montrose, Scotland, and went on to study at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art in Dundee, where he met fellow musicians Roger Ball and Alan Gorrie. Duncan and Ball, both from the Dundee art college scene, became known within the music industry as the "Dundee Horns," a partnership that would shape the sound of the band they went on to form together.

Career

Duncan and Ball first played together in the late-1960s progressive rock group Mogul Thrash before relocating to London, where they reunited with Gorrie to form Average White Band in the early 1970s, alongside Onnie McIntyre, Hamish Stuart and Robbie McIntosh.

The band released its debut album, Show Your Hand, in 1973, followed in 1974 by their self-titled album AWB, which topped the US charts. The album's instrumental single "Pick Up the Pieces," co-written by Duncan alongside Ball, Gorrie, McIntyre, Stuart and McIntosh and produced by Arif Mardin, reached number one on the US pop charts and achieved gold record status in 1975, driven in part by Duncan's now-iconic tenor saxophone solo.

The band followed this success with the top ten single "Cut the Cake" later that year. Average White Band's work of this era earned the group three Grammy Award nominations in the Rhythm & Blues category. The band split in the early 1980s and reformed later in the decade, with Duncan remaining a member through the group's subsequent recordings and performances.

Beyond Average White Band, Duncan recorded with artists including Ray Charles, Tom Petty, Buddy Guy, Ben E. King, Dire Straits and Bryan Ferry, and performed live alongside Marvin Gaye, Chaka Khan, Eric Clapton, Eurythmics and Incognito.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, he collaborated with drum and bass artists on the Good Looking Records label, including the group Intense, of which his son Dan Duncan was a member, and also worked with fellow studio musicians in the funk and fusion group Knee Deep, as well as Cold Sweat and the Horny Horns.

In July 2015, Duncan reunited with former Average White Band members Steve Ferrone and Hamish Stuart to form The 360 Band, effectively reassembling half of the original AWB line-up; the group released the album Three Sixty in 2017 and continued to perform live together. Duncan played a Selmer Mark VI tenor saxophone fitted with a Rafael Navarro Bahia 9 mouthpiece and La Voz reeds.

Personal Life

Duncan was the father of musician Dan Duncan, a member of the drum and bass group Intense, with whom he collaborated in the studio. He died on 8 October 2019 in Bocholt, Germany, of cancer, at the age of 74; his son Dan was with him at the time of his death. Duncan's legacy endures through Average White Band's influence on funk and soul music, with his saxophone work, most notably on "Pick Up the Pieces," having since been sampled by artists including the Beastie Boys, Public Enemy, TLC, Too Short, Ice Cube, Eric B. & Rakim, Nas and A Tribe Called Quest.