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And while her own pop career would wind down soon after, her career as a musical director took off.

#Remind me patrice rushen how to

She’s early in her pop career, still figuring out how to write the best lines for the right vocal register: “Let’s Sing a Song of Love” dances just beyond the reach of her backing singers.īy the time of her last Elektra album, 1984’s Now, Rushen had mastered the language of pop, with songs like “Feels So Real” and “To Each His Own” supplying late highlights. “When I Found You” relies on Rushen’s nuanced-but-insubstantial voice. “Settle for My Love” is breathy and wispy, liable to drift past without much notice. Her airy vocals might not always stick, but the groove does.īut the ballads keep drawing down the energy. And Rushen’s gurgling electric piano on “Remind Me” shows that despite forgoing her jazz audience for pop, she could still pull head-bobbing clusters from her keys in a manner that brings Herbie Hancock to mind. (My lone gripe is that I wish the ebullient “Call On Me” had made the cut.)ĭepending on how Melvin “Wah Wah Watson” Ragin’s stinging guitar is sampled, the slinky slow jam “Givin’ It Up Is Givin’ Up” imparts either sensuousness or eeriness, but Rushen’s voice twines with soul singer D.J.

#Remind me patrice rushen crack

Her crack session band is buoyant, and her arrangements made alongside Charles Mims, Jr., are sturdy and supple enough to be twisted in all kinds of new shapes. Lesser-known numbers like “Look Up!” and “Number One” are sharp enough to inspire new imitators and samplers. “Forget Me Nots” and “Haven’t You Heard” remain indefatigable, grooves that belong on the Great Wedding Playlist in the Sky alongside Chic, Earth, Wind & Fire, and Sister Sledge. Her dancefloor songs still sound featherweight and spry. She grazed the lower rungs of chart success, but never reached the heights she deserved. Worse still, her label did almost nothing to support her efforts. Rushen faced harsher critical backlash for her crossover than her male colleagues, and was deemed a sellout by the jazz community. Remind Me: The Classic Elektra Recordings 1978-1984 shows us how her production and arranging provided building blocks for decades of future R&B and hip-hop hits. When Rushen jumped to the Elektra label in 1978 and started cutting sophisticated urban pop that drew on all of the above, she wasn’t alone-jazz stars like Herbie Hancock, Donald Byrd, Roy Ayers, and George Benson had already crossed over. What was she supposed to do? Her music naturally started to absorb it all. But it was 1974, and the charts were instead filled with funk, R&B, fusion, and the pulse of disco. By the time she was a teenager, she was signed to the iconic jazz label Prestige, recruiting heavyweights like Joe Henderson and Leon “Ndugu” Chancler for her debut album, Prelusion. Rushen started playing music at the age of 3.