Patrice Rushen Official Biography continued

courtesy of Elektra/Asylum

Patrice Rushen Letter to King from Powerhouse Radio and the staff of WAYV Atlantic City, NJ

She was twelve when she began to be bored by playing alone. A family friend taught her to play the flute. "It felt good to be a member of an orchestra, a small cog in a big wheel. And the experience taught me a lot about orchestration."

Patrice was the first chair flutist in a student orchestra, and played that instrument in the jazz lab band, the Msingi Workshop, founded in her high school by Reggie Andrews, who has helped Patrice produce all her albums. ("Msingi" is Swahili for "root".)

"It was a brand new experience for me. Reggie was a great inspiration. He taught kids that music could be an evocation, not just an avocation. And he opened up my piano playing from a new perspective.

I learned to play what I heard inside - to improvise. I wasn't cut out to play Bach fugues in competitions. I realized that I wanted to make my own music."

Patrice entered her own combo in competition at the Monterey Jazz Festival, and won. "I also played that year in the All-California high school band, and so I got a lot of publicity. That's how my recording career began."

Patrice worked with Melba Liston's big band, with singer Abby Lincoln, and with the Sylvers. She signed with Prestige and recorded her first album, Prelusion, a purely instrumental effort which received unanimous critical praise.

The album combined funky finger-popping tracks with complex compositions which showcased Patrice's mastery of classical harmonies applied to jazz improvisation.

Her second album, Before The Dawn, was released in 1974 and led critic Mikal Gilmore to write in Downbeat, "Rushen displays a striking sense of personality on every instrument she touches, whether it be acoustic or electronic... a refreshing force."

Patrice's third and final album for Prestige, Shout It Out, was also the first on which she sang her own songs. Her style was distinctly more danceable than before.

New York critic Didier Delauney remarked that "it retains the basic elements of her artistry, an infectious quality that uplifts the listener's spirits."

During the same period of those albums, Patrice kept up her studies at USC, and found herself in increasing demand as a professional studio musician.

"My first record date with someone else was Jean-Luc Ponty's Upon The Wings of Music. I got session calls for a lot of R&B things, and I did albums with jazz and crossover musicians like Alfonso Johnson, Eddie Henderson, Lee Ritenour and Harvey Mason."

"I worked with Ritenour off and on for two years at the Baked Potato Club. I worked in Hubert Laws band. I did sessions with Donald Byrd and the Blackbyrds. I worked on some commercials and a few movie score dates."

"And when I did a record with Stanley Turrentine, I got to work with Ron Carter and Freddie Hubbard." Patrice has also guested on albums with Flora Purim, Sonny Rollins and Hubert Laws. Most recently, she coproduced an album for Eddie Henderson.

Despite the pressures of her schedule, she practices daily on her primary instrument, the piano. "I play classical pieces and standards. I'm still trying to master the instrument. I'll play Prokofiev or Brahms or Debussy. I work from an interpretive standpoint, trying to get the instrument to speak."

Although her creative means are highly sophisticated, her attitude is direct and dawn-to-earth.

"When I perform, I'm thinking about the audience out there. But when I write, I just worry about what I'm feeling at the moment. Since I'm a person, it's natural that when I tap my own feelings, I'll tap some of those same feelings in others."

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