Patrice Louise Rushen (born September 30, 1954) is an American jazz pianist and R&B singer. She is also a composer, record producer, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and music director. Her 1982 single "

Forget Me Nots "Forget Me Nots" is a 1982 song co-written and performed by American R&B musician Patrice Rushen. It appears on her seventh album, '' Straight from the Heart''. Making a radical shift in her music, Rushen would continue to harness the particular ...

" received a

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pr ...

nomination for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance. The instrumental "Number One" from her album '' Straight from the Heart'' earned an additional Grammy nomination for best instrumental. Her 12th album ''

Signature A signature (; from la, signare, "to sign") is a Handwriting, handwritten (and often Stylization, stylized) depiction of someone's name, nickname, or even a simple "X" or other mark that a person writes on documents as a proof of identity and ...

'' also received a Grammy nomination for best instrumental in 1998. Rushen also serves as an ambassador for artistry in education at the

Berklee College of Music Berklee College of Music is a private music college in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known for the study of jazz and modern American music, it also offers college-level cours ...

and the chair of the popular music program at the

USC Thornton School of Music The USC Thornton School of Music is a private music school in Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1884 only four years after the University of Southern California, the Thornton School is the oldest continually operating arts institution in Los An ...

Biography

Rushen is the elder of two daughters born to Allen and Ruth Rushen. Patrice was three years old when she began playing the piano, and by the time she was six, she was giving classical recitals. In her teens, she attended Locke High School and later earned a degree in music from the University of Southern California. After winning a competition at the age of 17 that enabled her to perform with her band at the

Monterey Jazz Festival The Monterey Jazz Festival is an annual music festival that takes place in Monterey, California, United States. It debuted on October 3, 1958, championed by Dave Brubeck and co-founded by jazz and popular music critic Ralph J. Gleason and jazz ...

, Rushen signed with the

Prestige Prestige refers to a good reputation or high esteem; in earlier usage, ''prestige'' meant "showiness". (19th c.) Prestige may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Films * ''Prestige'' (film), a 1932 American film directed by Tay Garnet ...

label, releasing three albums with them – '' Prelusion'' (1974), '' Before the Dawn'' (1975), and '' Shout It Out'' (1977). In 1978, when she was 23, she began recording with Elektra. Rushen married Marc St. Louis, a concert tour manager and live show production specialist, in 1986. They have one son, Cameron and one daughter named Jadyn. The name of her publishing company, Baby fingers Inc., is pulled from her nickname Babyfingers for her tiny hands. In 2005, Rushen received an honorary doctorate of Music degree from Berklee College of Music. She is the chair of popular music at USC and the ambassador of artistry in Education at the Berklee College of Music. She has served as the film composer for numerous movies television shows and documentaries. She has been a member of

jazz fusion Jazz fusion (also known as fusion and progressive jazz) is a music genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and improvisation with rock music, funk, and rhythm and blues. Electric guitars, amplifiers, and ke ...

band CAB, The Meeting (GRP Records) with Ndugu Chancler,

Alphonso Johnson Alphonso Johnson (born February 2, 1951) is an American jazz bassist active since the early 1970s. Johnson was a member of the jazz fusion group Weather Report from 1973 to 1975, and has performed and recorded with numerous high-profile rock and ...

and Ernie Watts. Rushen is also a music director, having worked on various television events as well as Janet Jackson's world tour '

Janet Janet may refer to: Names * Janet (given name) * Janet (French singer) (1939–2011) Surname * Charles Janet (1849–1932), French engineer, inventor and biologist, known for the Left Step periodic table * Jules Janet (1861–1945), French psych ...

'. Her song "Hang It Up" was featured on the 2005 video game ''

Fahrenheit The Fahrenheit scale () is a temperature scale based on one proposed in 1724 by the physicist Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit (1686–1736). It uses the degree Fahrenheit (symbol: °F) as the unit. Several accounts of how he originally defined hi ...

''.

Cultural impact

Rushen's songs are sampled often in other artists music. The chorus from "

" was used as the music for the 1997 song "

Men in Black In popular culture and UFO conspiracy theories, men in black (MIB) are purported men dressed in black suits who claim to be quasi- government agents, who harass, threaten, or sometimes even assassinate unidentified flying object (UFO) witnesses ...

". Rushen was credited as writer and composer, along with

Will Smith Willard Carroll Smith II (born September 25, 1968), also known by his stage name The Fresh Prince, is an American actor and rapper. He began his acting career starring as a fictionalized version of himself on the NBC sitcom '' The Fresh ...

and Terri McFadden. The same chorus can be heard in

George Michael George Michael (born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou; 25 June 1963 – 25 December 2016) was an English singer and songwriter. He is considered one of the most significant cultural icons of the MTV generation and is one of the best-selling music ...

's song "

Fastlove "Fastlove" is a song by English singer-songwriter George Michael, released on 22 April 1996 by Virgin Records in the United Kingdom and DreamWorks Records in the United States as the second single from his third album, ''Older'' (1996). Writte ...

". "Forget Me Nots" previously found its way into the trampolining scene in the film

Big Big or BIG may refer to: * Big, of great size or degree Film and television * ''Big'' (film), a 1988 fantasy-comedy film starring Tom Hanks * ''Big!'', a Discovery Channel television show * ''Richard Hammond's Big'', a television show present ...

. Her song " Haven't You Heard" was sampled in Kirk Franklin's Looking For You from the

Norbit In electronics, the NORBIT family of modules is a very early form (since 1960) of digital logic developed by Philips (and also provided through and Mullard) that uses modules containing discrete components to build logic function blocks in re ...

soundtrack. In 2021 her song "

" was used in a dance challenge on

TikTok TikTok, known in China as Douyin (), is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 15 seconds to 10 minutes. TikTok is an international version o ...

. Rushen was the first woman to serve as music director for the 46th, 47th, and 48th Grammy Awards. She was the only woman music director/conductor/arranger for a late-night show titled ''The Midnight Hour'', which aired on CBS in 1990.

Awards

Grammy awards

Rushen has received three Grammy nominations.

Other awards

* Number One Record "Feels So Real", Radio & Records (R&R) National Chart - Writers: Patrice Rushen & Fred Washington, 1984 * ASCAP Songwriter's Award, 1988 * USC Black Student Assembly, Legacy of Excellence Award, 1992 * Crystal Award, American Women in Film, 1994 * ASCAP Award, Most Performed Song in Motion Pictures for 1997 for "

," 1998 * NAACP Image Award Nomination for Best Contemporary Jazz Recording for “Signature”, 1998 * Honorary Doctorate

, 2005 * The California Jazz Foundation NICA award for lifetime achievement, 2019 * The Ramo Music Faculty Award, 2020 * Trailblazer Award, Salute Them Awards, 2021

Discography

Solo albums

Singles

Appearances

With Carlos Santana and

Wayne Shorter Wayne Shorter (born August 25, 1933) is an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Shorter came to prominence in the late 1950s as a member of, and eventually primary composer for, Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. In the 1960s, he joined Miles Dav ...

* '' Live at the 1988 Montreux Jazz Festival'' (Liberation Entertainment, 2007) With The Meeting * ''The Meeting'' (GRP, 1990) * ''Update'' (Hip-Bop, 1995) With

Kenny Burrell Kenneth Earl Burrell (born July 31, 1931) is an American jazz guitarist known for his work on numerous top jazz labels: Prestige, Blue Note, Verve, CTI, Muse, and Concord. His collaborations with Jimmy Smith were notable, and produced the 1965 ...

* ''

Heritage Heritage may refer to: History and society * A heritage asset is a preexisting thing of value today ** Cultural heritage is created by humans ** Natural heritage is not * Heritage language Biology * Heredity, biological inheritance of physica ...

'' (AudioSource, 1980) With Herbie Hancock * '' Lite Me Up'' (Columbia, 1982) With Eddie Henderson * ''

'' (Blue Note, 1976) * '' Comin' Through'' (Capitol, 1977) With

Jean-Luc Ponty Jean-Luc Ponty (born 29 September 1942) is a French jazz violinist and composer. Early life Ponty was born into a family of classical musicians in Avranches, France. His father taught violin, his mother taught piano. At sixteen, he was admitt ...

* '' Upon the Wings of Music'' (Atlantic, 1975) * ''

Aurora An aurora (plural: auroras or aurorae), also commonly known as the polar lights, is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly seen in high-latitude regions (around the Arctic and Antarctic). Auroras display dynamic patterns of bri ...

'' (Atlantic, 1976) With Letizia Gambi * '' Introducing Letizia Gambi'' (Via Veneto Jazz, 2012) With

Wallace Roney Wallace Roney (May 25, 1960 – March 31, 2020) was an American jazz ( hard bop and post-bop) trumpeter. He has won 1 Grammy award and has two nominations. Roney took lessons from Clark Terry and Dizzy Gillespie and studied with Miles Davis fr ...

* '' A Place in Time'' (HighNote, 2016) With Cindy Blackman * '' Another Lifetime'' (4Q, 2010)

Filmography

* ''Agents of Change'' (2016) * ''Burning Sands'' (2008) * '' For One Night'' (2006, TV) * ''Just a Dream'' (2002) * ''

Our America ''Our America'' is a film based on the book ''Our America: Life And Death on the South Side of Chicago''.Harvey, Denni ''Variety'', Jan. 16, 2002, retrieved 2008-07-10 It premiered at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival, and aired on American televis ...

'' (2002, TV) * ''Baby of the Family'' (2002) * '' Piano, Bass and Drums'' (2002 Aix Entertainment, DVD Audio) * ''The Killing Yard'' (2001, TV) * ''Fire & Ice'' (2001, TV) * ''

Cora Unashamed ''Cora Unashamed'' is a 2000 American made-for-television drama film from The American Collection directed by Deborah Pratt, starring Regina Taylor and Cherry Jones. The film was shot on location in October 1999 in central Iowa. Cities such a ...

'' (2000, TV) * ''

Ruby Bridges Ruby Nell Bridges Hall (born September 8, 1954) is an American civil rights activist. She was the first African-American child to desegregate the all-white William Frantz Elementary School in Louisiana during the New Orleans school desegreg ...

'' (1998, TV) * ''America's Dream'' (1996, TV) * ''A. Philip Randolph: For Jobs and Freedom'' (1996, TV) * ''

The Steve Harvey Show ''The Steve Harvey Show'' is an American television sitcom that aired on The WB from August 25, 1996, to February 17, 2002. It was created by Winifred Hervey and directed by Stan Lathan. Synopsis Steve Hightower ( Steve Harvey) is a 1970s funk ...

'' (1996) TV series (unknown episodes) * ''The Midnight Hour'' (1990) TV series (unknown episodes) * ''Without You I'm Nothing'' (1990) * ''

Hollywood Shuffle ''Hollywood Shuffle'' is a 1987 American satirical comedy film about the racial stereotypes of African Americans in film and television. The film tracks the attempts of Bobby Taylor to become a successful actor and the mental and external roadbl ...

'' (1987) * ''George Michael: I'm Your Man – A South Bank Show Special'' (2006, TV, writer: "Fastlove") * ''Fahrenheit'' (2005, performer: "Hang It Up") * ''

'' (1997, writer: "Men In Black") * ''

Waiting to Exhale ''Waiting to Exhale'' is a 1995 American romance film directed by Forest Whitaker (in his feature film directorial debut) and starring Whitney Houston and Angela Bassett. The film was adapted from the 1992 novel of the same name by Terry McMil ...

'' (1995, performer: "And I Gave My Love to You") * ''Big'' (1988, writer/performer: "Forget Me Nots") * ''Dominick and Eugene'' (1988, performer: "Somewhere") * ''TV in Black: The First Fifty Years'' (2004) Herself * ''VH-1 Where Are They Now?'' Herself (One episode, 2002) * ''100 Greatest Dance Songs of Rock & Roll'' (2000), TV series, Herself * ''Monterey Jazz Festival: 40 Legendary Years'' (1998), Herself * ''The Best of Robert Townsend & His Partners in Crime'' (1991) Herself * ''

Top of the Pops ''Top of the Pops'' (''TOTP'') is a British music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly between 1January 1964 and 30 July 2006. The programme was the world's longest-running weekly music show. For most o ...

'', Herself (One episode, 1982) * '' Soul Train'', Herself (One episode, 1981) * '' American Bandstand'', Herself (One episode, 1980)

Musical directing

* The 48th Annual Grammy Awards (2006, musical director) * The 47th Annual Grammy Awards (2005, musical director) * The 46th Annual Grammy Awards (2004, musical director) * The 10th Annual Walk of Fame Honoring Smokey Robinson (2004, musical director) * The 9th Annual Walk of Fame Honoring Aretha Franklin (2003, musical director) * The 8th Annual Walk of Fame Honoring Stevie Wonder (2002, musical director) * People's Choice Awards (1993, musical director) * The Best of Robert Townsend & His Partners in Crime (1991, musical director) * "No Strings" by "

Sheena Easton Sheena Shirley Easton (; born 27 April 1959) is a Scottish singer and actress. Easton came into the public eye in an episode of the first British musical reality television programme '' The Big Time: Pop Singer'', which recorded her attempts to ...

", Rushen as record producer (1993) * The Women of Brewster Place (1989, special musical consultant) * "The Midnight Hour" (unknown episodes, 1990) * ''Partners in Crime'' (1988, musical director)

References

Sources

External links

* * * *
Patrice Rushen 2012 Audio Interview at Soulinterviews.com

Patrice Rushen Interview
NAMM Oral History Program {{DEFAULTSORT:Rushen, Patrice 1954 births 20th-century African-American women singers African-American jazz pianists American boogie musicians American dance musicians American disco singers American funk keyboardists American funk singers American multi-instrumentalists American jazz keyboardists American rhythm and blues singer-songwriters American sopranos American soul keyboardists American soul singers Jazz musicians from California Rhythm and blues pianists Living people Singers from Los Angeles USC Thornton School of Music alumni Women jazz pianists 20th-century American women singers 21st-century American women singers 20th-century American pianists CAB (band) members 21st-century American keyboardists 21st-century American pianists 20th-century American keyboardists Elektra Records artists 20th-century American singers 21st-century American singers African-American songwriters 21st-century African-American women Singer-songwriters from California 20th-century women pianists 21st-century women pianists