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All Music Guide:
Along with contemporaries George Duke and George Benson, Patrice Rushen made a major transition from cutting respected acoustic jazz material to hitting the upper reaches of the club and R&B charts. A dynamite keyboardist with a limited but sweet voice, Rushen debuted at the age of 20 on the Prestige label, working with maverick saxophonist Joe Henderson. Within a matter of a few years, legendary club DJ Larry Levan was spinning her carefree but sophisticated post-disco singles released on Elektra. Rushen continued releasing R&B albums into the '90s while never completely departing the jazz world; she also became a barrier-breaking musical director.
Born September 30, 1954, in Los Angeles, CA, Rushen's parents enrolled her in music classes at USC when she was three. In her teens, she won a solo competition at the 1972 Monterey Jazz Festival. The attention garnered from this earned her a contract with the Prestige label. After recording Prelusion (1974), Before the Dawn (1975), and Shout It Out (1976), and establishing herself as an in-demand session player on albums such as Donald Byrd's Caricatures and Eddie Henderson's Heritage, for which she contributed "Kudu," Rushen signed with Elektra. Forging an engaging jazz/R&B/funk fusion, she found a new audience through Patrice (1977), Pizzazz (1979), Posh (1980), Straight from the Heart (1982), and Now (1984). Most of these sets impacted both the jazz and R&B charts, and several singles off them were heard on dancefloors and across airwaves. 1980's "Haven't You Heard" and 1982's "Forget Me Nots" were the most successful of the lot; both of them went Top Ten on the R&B and club charts. The latter was sampled heavily for Will Smith's 1997 hit "Men in Black," while the former became the basis of Kirk Franklin's 2005 gospel crossover smash "Looking for You."
From the mid-'80s onward, Rushen's solo recordings were relatively sporadic, including sets for Arista, Sindrome, and Discovery; some of these were her most jazz-oriented releases since the mid-'70s. During the early '90s, she established herself as a musical director, guiding Janet Jackson's janet. world tour. More significantly, in 2004, she became the first woman to serve as musical director for the Grammy Awards. Throughout the decade, she continued to record, lending her skills to releases by Lee Ritenour, Stanley Clarke, George Benson, Babatunde Lea, and Jill Scott, not to mention the Hidden Beach label's Unwrapped series of hip-hop reinterpretations.
Wikipedia:
Patrice Rushen (born Patrice Louise Rushen, September 30, 1954, Los Angeles, California) is a Grammy Award-winning R&B and jazz vocalist, composer and pianist.
Biography
Rushen is the elder of two daughters born to the late Allen Rushen and the former Ruth Harris. She demonstrated her musical potential at a young age; she was regarded as a child prodigy. In her teens, she attended south LA's Locke High and went on to earn a degree in music from the University of Southern California.
Rushen has many ground-breaking achievements. She became the first woman to serve as head composer/musical director for the Grammy Awards and the Emmy Awards, and the first woman to serve as musical director for the NAACP Image Awards' broadcast, an honor she held for twelve consecutive years. Additionally, Rushen has been the only woman to be a musical director/composer for the People's Choice Awards, HBO's Comic Relief and the only woman musical director/conductor/arranger for a late-night television talk show, The Midnight Hour.
In addition, Rushen was named musical director/composer for Newsweek's first American Achievement Awards, broadcast on CBS from the Kennedy Center and she served as the musical director for Janet Jackson's janet. World Tour.
In 2008, Rushen accepted a professorship at the Berklee College of Music, in Boston. The course is "Patrice Rushen: The Value of Music Education."
She also continues to play keyboards and has played in the touring bands of Lee Ritenour and Wayne Shorter in recent years.
Solo career
Rushen has also achieved great success as a singer. A classically trained pianist, Rushen has spent a great deal of time channeling her skills musically. Winning a competition at the 1972 Monterey Jazz Festival gained Rushen national attention, which earned her a recording contract with Prestige Records in 1973.
After recording three albums and becoming an in-demand session player, with artists that included Jean-Luc Ponty, Rushen signed with Elektra Records in 1978. Forging jazz/R&B/funk fusion, her signature sound from the melding of these styles gave her success with a string of Top Ten R&B hits, including "Haven't You Heard," "Forget Me Nots," "Feels So Real," "Watch Out," "You Remind Me," and "Never Gonna Give You Up" from her first five solo albums (Patrice, Pizzazz, Posh, Straight From the Heart, and Now). Rushen guested on Soul Train, where she performed her single "I Need Your Love" in 1981. She also penned the opening theme for The Steve Harvey Show. Her mentor and friend is Quincy Jones. Rushen also plays multiple instruments including the flute, clarinet and various kinds of percussion.
Discography
With Lalo Schifrin
No One Home (Tabu, 1979)
