Robin Duhe

Bassist/Composer Robin Duhe was born in Oakland, California. He came from a large musical family. In the third grade, Duhe learned to play the trumpet. In high school, he switched to the French horn and performed in various school orchestras and bands. The best moment of Duhe’s high school band experience was performing at the New York World’s Fair. Eventually, Duhe changed from wind to string instruments. This occurred when his mother gave him a four-string guitar. He strummed that guitar like a bass and found his niche, the bass guitar. After high school, Duhe performed around the San Francisco Bay Area. He played with The Soul Messengers , a group who backed many artists including Etta James, Bobby Womack, and Rudy Ray Moore. While in college, Duhe was introduced to members of Frankie Beverly’s Band. Duhe quickly joined the band and performed around the world with that group for over thirty years. That band became known as Maze Featuring Frankie Beverly. Over time, Duhe’s music has evolved. He focused exclusively on the R&B sound for the first thirty years of his musical career. In his "Do It Duhe" CD, Duhe’s music changed to Smooth Jazz with R&B undertones. In his "Life" CD, his music is seasoned with a variety of genres which ranges from Smooth Jazz, to R&B, to Funk music with a jazzy hook, to Message Music. Ironically, during the writing of "Life," Duhe suffered the devastating illness of cancer. He wrote the title tune, "Life (Gets in the Way)," after his recovery. That song echoes Duhe’s personal experiences in dealing with the disease. The opening line of the title tune is straightforward and honest. It says, “Sorry, I can’t make it today; suddenly my world has changed.”