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Patrice Rushen VibeZ

A classically trained jazz pianist who wrote pop hits, scored films, and ended up as one of the most sampled musicians in hip-hop. Patrice Rushen has had at least four careers.

The musician's musician who happened to have hits

Patrice Rushen was a serious jazz pianist first. Born in Los Angeles in 1954, she was leading her own trio as a teenager, recorded three well-regarded jazz albums for Prestige before she turned twenty-three, and worked as a sideperson with Jean-Luc Ponty, Sonny Rollins and Donald Byrd.

The turn toward R&B in the late 1970s was not a compromise so much as an expansion, and it produced a run of records that were commercially successful and harmonically far more sophisticated than the chart around them. She wrote, arranged, produced and played, which was rare for anyone in that era and almost unheard of for a woman.

She later became the first woman to serve as musical director for the Grammy Awards, worked extensively in film and television scoring, and has held senior teaching positions — including at the Berklee College of Music and USC.

What to listen for

"Forget Me Nots" is the record everyone knows, whether or not they know it. That bassline — played by Freddie Washington — has been sampled by Will Smith on "Men in Black," interpolated by George Michael on "Fastlove," and used across hundreds of hip-hop and house records.

"Remind Me" is the one DJs revere: a favourite of the UK rare groove scene, sampled by Mary J. Blige among many others, and arguably the better record.

"Haven't You Heard" and "Number One" in the twelve-inch version are the dancefloor cuts, and "Feels So Real" is the most joyful.

"Where There Is Love" and "To Each His Own" show the ballad writing, and "Never Gonna Give You Up" is not the Rick Astley song.

Throughout, listen to the keyboard voicings. Rushen plays chords a pop musician would not think of, and that is what gives these records their particular warmth.

Go deeper

Straight from the Heart (1982) is the album, and her earlier jazz records — Prelusion, Before the Dawn — are the ones almost nobody hears and absolutely should.

Her Strange Arrangement compilation, curated for Elton John's Rocket imprint by Soul Jazz-adjacent editors, is a good survey.

For the lineage of women instrumentalist-producers in Black music — a much longer list than the histories suggest — Sylvia Robinson, Terri Lyne Carrington, Georgia Anne Muldrow and Alice Coltrane are all essential.

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