Patrice Rushen

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...