Good Morning Orgers,

Yo' give it up for my girl Patrice Rushen, give her some love. I grew up listening to her music back in the DAY and her music have provided countless moments of pleasure to me over the years. She can play keyboards, piano and bass. She doesn't always get the respect she deserves, yet her work has been sampled numerous times. I remember buying her album STRAIGHT FROM THE HEART(brand spanking new) at a flea market for only $1. A dollar well spent. This is an album I like from beginning to end. Let us pay homage to this BAD sista...shall we???

Favorite Rushen albums...


***Before The Dawn- My favorite Patrice Rushen album. This is some high quality fusion jazz. Rushen plays her behind off on this record. The melodic structuring are sure to please yo' earhole and the music overall is very captivating. Just get the record. You'll enjoy it. It's still in print on CD (I think). And hear how Rushen was throwing down before the days of "Haven't You Heard" and "Forget Me Not".(Released in 1975).

***Straight From The Heart- A lot of jazz snobs and purists got upset when Rushen started adding her vocals and started leaning toward a more R&B sound(they screamed "FOUL PLAY"), but R&B and funk fans could have cared less. This record is a winner and several tracks on it have been sampled numerous times in the R&B and Hip-Hop community. Nothing more to say about this great recording. (Released in 1982).

***Pizzazz- Another great record. This album made the top 40 on the album chart and prove to be the crossover success that Patrice had longed for. Tha big single was the awesome bouncy "Haven't You Heard" {boy this song takes me back to the days when me and the fellas would go to those disco skating rinks back in 1979...and jam our behinds off). But that's not it. the album also contains the beautiful hypnotic ballad "Settle For My Love". One listen to this song with Freddie "Ready" Washington riding out the groove on that bass...and you're hooked. Stellar performance. This album also contains "Givin It Up". This album is out of print but it's worth the search. Great record. (Released in 1979).

Patrice Rushen has worked with Prince before.She helped him out with synthesizer programming on his 1978 debut album,and he wrote a few songs for her ("I Wanna Be Your Lover" and "I Feel For You" were inspired by her).In 1989,she temporarily joined his band and can be seen on the "Saturday Night Live" performance of "Electric Chair".

My favorite songs by her are...

***"Look Up"(1980)
***"Haven't You Heard"(1979)
***"High In Me"(1984)
***"Remind Me"(1982)---intoxicating and sexy!!!
***"Forget Me Nots"(1982)
***"Feels So Real(Won't Let Go)"(1984)

I've always wondered if that was Patrice playing the piano solo on "Sexy Dancer".

Go to Limewire and enjoy Patrice's "You Remind Me" famously remade by Mary J.

Patrice Rushen is a great artist who was a fundamental influence for Prince in the early days. He learned many things about songwriting from Patrice and she deserves some amount of credit for that.

Only thing I really get a feeling for her is on BEFORE THe DAWN.
"Forget Me Nots" and "You Remind Me" are nice little pop tunes for the radio or parties,
but I don't really dig that stuff enough to play on my own initiative.

Patrice is very underrated & underappreciated.

She has been so good for so long, 1 of the better multi-instrumentalists who happens to be female, not only is she good at playing different styles of music, she's also good at mixing different styles of music. I can't think of anyone out there today who can be put in the same category as Patrice in terms of talent & musicianship, I can't remember the last album she put out (or if I even heard anything from the album).. but I do know (& as it's been already stated) a lot of today's "acts" are either singing her songs or sampling her.. a big, inferior step DOWN, in most cases..


"forget me nots" is a very funky song

"haven't you heard" is very good too.. rumor had it that she wrote this song TO Prince, a sort of flirty thing..?

"you remind me" is nice & dreamy, too..



Patrice..
you're a lot more
than people give you credit for
keep on groovin' & jammin' anyway

Her Earlier 70's Records are Quite Good as well around 1974."Babyfingers'or a name along those lines was given to Her.She does alot of work on Award Shows such as Musical Director for B.E.T Award Shows,NAACP,&other Shows.true story She use to Be Involved with the Might Larry Graham.in fact Her&Tina Graham were Best Friends as well.this is in the 6 Degrees of Prince file.She&Her Boyfriend at the time Helped out Prince on parts for the "For You" Album.once She went R&B/Pop Her Material wasn't quite as tight as Her Jazzy Past IMHO.Still She is Vastly Underrated IMHO.

mistermaxxx said:

She gigs quite often in LA. I see her often out and about. Because of her education and close ties to the community she gets a lot of plum jobs like those MUSICAL DIRECTOR gigs. She truly lives a life of music and is not beholden to a record company for her livelihood.

PFunkjazz said:

thanks Man on the 411 on Her.

brianr54 said:

It's too bad that Prince went in a different direction with female collaborators. There's no telling how his music would have evolved if he had chosen collaborators like Patrice Rushen instead of Vanity or Appollonia types.

RavedIn2 said:

it would have been Cool but Prince also wanted that part of Showbusiness&it showed.

RavedIn2 said:

:Lol: High unlikely cuz Prince usually associates with dingbats. Patrice is a smart intellectual and while she's cetainly not from a disadvantaged household she is from Eastside LA in that era right before gangbangin' first started. Prince simply couldn't handle a sistah like that. :Wink:
[This message was edited Tue Jul 23 20:12:33 PDT 2002 by PFunkjazz]

Patrice was the musical director of Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation tour in 1990.

I would love to see her perform live. Back in her heyday, I was too young to really go to her concerts. She is one of the few living musicians that I admire that I haven't seen yet.

Hope everyone hump day is going well...Later!!!

BEST THANGS about living in Harlem is there's no chance to be a spolied brat, the OTHER BEST THING is the musicians/singers who come to sing/play in the Apollo(a block away from my place). My mother was a pianist, she used to work there in the 70's and as a musician she ENJOY attending the Apollo.

I had a chance to see the sistah girl back in 1990, I was young too but unlike you my friend I WAS MIGHTY LUCKY anyway it was one of the finest pre4mances in that night, me and ma' momma had 1 hell of a time. I bought her 'Str8 from the heart' but I lost it, now I'm going to buy the 'remastered' one.

I already have her "Haven't U Heard? The Very Best Of Patrice Rushen" tho!
[This message was edited Fri Nov 21 9:59:06 PST 2003 by Harlepolis]

Will Smith's "Men in black"

jnoel said:

Hey nah I feel U to my bones, Will is blah. But I thought that Coko did a pretty good jop in the hook, don't u think??

Have any one heard the MUSIQ+AARIES cover version in Soul child's debut lp "Settle For My Love"?? I think Aaries did a fine jop singing like Patrice.

, elaborate please

Harlepolis said:

jnoel said:

Pfff I said I AGREE with you. Coko is the girl who sang in the hook. There,,,

jnoel said:

She was sampled first and much better by George Michael on "Fastlove"

Anybody got a tab on the "Forget Me Nots" bass line?

DMSR said:

DAMN I knew there were some Patrice's samples along these vibes. And yes I do agree that GM's version was much betta than Will's.

DMSR said:

I know she got some killer bass lines but did she played that one??? If she did then once again DAYMN . LOL I used think that WOMEN are nooo good when it comes to play BASS but now,,

Harlepolis said:

this bass line ranks up there with Boogie Oogie Oogie, definitely played by a woman.

DMSR said:

True

Harlepolis said:

No I don't think she played bass on the "Forget Me Nots" track, that is played by Freddie "Ready" Washington. But she does play bass on "Look Up (Enjoy)" from the 1980 album POSH which is a good record BTW.

DMSR said:

The bass on "Boogie Oogie Oogie" by A Taste Of Honey is played by Janice Johnson and yes she smoked on that one.

Good Morning Orgers,

I'm reviving this thread to give the news that one of my all-time favorite female musician will have her latter 70's albums being reissued on CD. According to ICE magazine her 70's albums Patrice, Pizzazz and Posh are now reissued on CD. They came out this past week {January 28,2003..however I didn't see at Tower Records this past weekend during a visit). This is great news, as these albums are pretty good. Pizzazz and Posh are very good. A nice blend of R&B,funk and fusion on these two records. Great news indeed!!!

Correction. The correct release date on those Patrice CDs is February 25,2003. My apologies.

Patrice Rushen also features on Terence Trent D'Arby's "Vibrator".A contribution of a great artist on a great record