Patrice Louise Rushen (born September 30, 1954) is an American jazz pianist, R&B singer, record producer, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and music director. At the 25th Annual Grammy Awards, her 1982 single, " Forget Me Nots", received a nomination for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance, while her instrumental song, "Number One" was nominated Best R&B Instrumental; both songs were from her seventh studio album, '' Straight from the Heart'' (1982). Since 2008, Rushen has served as an ambassador for artistry in education at the

Berklee College of Music Berklee College of Music () is a Private university, private music college in Boston, Boston, Massachusetts. It is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known for the study of jazz and modern Music of the United ...

, 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 ...

since 2014.

Biography

Rushen is the elder of two daughters born to Allen and Ruth Rushen (former Director of California Department of Corrections). 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, Rushen signed with the

Prestige Prestige may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Films *Prestige (film), ''Prestige'' (film), a 1932 American film directed by Tay Garnett: woman travels to French Indochina to meet up with husband *The Prestige (film), ''The Prestige'' (fi ...

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 jazz rock, jazz-rock fusion, or simply fusion) is a popular music genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and improvisation with rock music, funk, and rhythm and blues. Electric gui ...

band CAB, The Meeting (GRP Records) with Ndugu Chancler, Alphonso Johnson and Ernie Watts. Rushen is also a music director, having worked on various television events as well as Janet Jackson's second concert tour Janet World Tour. Her song "Hang It Up" was featured on the 2005 video game ''

Fahrenheit The Fahrenheit scale () is a scale of temperature, temperature scale based on one proposed in 1724 by the German-Polish physicist Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit (1686–1736). It uses the degree Fahrenheit (symbol: °F) as the unit. Several accou ...

''.

Cultural impact

Rushen's songs are sampled often in other artists' music. The chorus from " Forget Me Nots" was used as the music for the 1997 song "

Men in Black In popular culture and UFO conspiracy theories, men in black (MIB) are government agents dressed in dark suits, who question, interrogate, harass, and threaten unidentified flying object (UFO) witnesses to keep them silent about what they have ...

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

Will Smith Willard Carroll Smith II (born September 25, 1968) is an American actor, rapper, and film producer. Known for his work in both Will Smith filmography, the screen and Will Smith discography, music industries, List of awards and nominations re ...

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-songwriter and record producer. Regarded as a pop culture icon, he is one of the List of best-selling music artists, best-selling rec ...

's song " Fastlove". "Forget Me Nots" previously found its way into the trampolining scene in the 1988 film ''

Big Big or BIG may refer to: * Big, of great size or degree Film and television * Big (film), ''Big'' (film), a 1988 fantasy-comedy film starring Tom Hanks * ''Big'', a 2023 Taiwanese children's film starring Van Fan and Chie Tanaka * ''Big!'', a ...

''. 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 electronics, digital logic developed by Philips (and also provided through and Mullard) that uses modules containing discrete components to build logic fu ...

'' soundtrack. In 2021, "Forget Me Nots" was used in a dance challenge on

TikTok TikTok, known in mainland China and Hong Kong as Douyin (), is a social media and Short-form content, short-form online video platform owned by Chinese Internet company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which may range in duration f ...

. 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 USC may refer to: Education United States * Universidad del Sagrado Corazón, Santurce, Puerto Rico * University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina ** University of South Carolina System, a state university system of South Carolina * ...

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 The NAACP Image Awards is an annual awards ceremony presented by the U.S.-based National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to honor outstanding performances in film, television, theatre, music, and literature. The over 40 ...

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 * Hamilton Garrett Center for Music and Arts (Boston, MA), Make Them Hear You Award, 2023

Discography

Solo albums

Compilations and collections

Singles

Appearances

With CAB * '' CAB 4'' (Favored Nations, 2003) With

Carlos Santana Carlos Humberto Santana Barragán (; born July 20, 1947) is an American guitarist, best known as a founding member of the Rock music, rock band Santana (band), Santana. Born and raised in Mexico where he developed his musical background, he r ...

and Wayne Shorter * '' 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 Records, Prestige, Blue Note, Verve Records, Verve, CTI Records, CTI, Muse Records, Muse, and Concord Records, Conco ...

* ''

Heritage Heritage may refer to: History and society * A heritage asset A heritage asset is an item which has value because of its contribution to a nation's society, knowledge and/or culture. Such items are usually physical assets, but some countries also ...

'' (AudioSource, 1980) With

Herbie Hancock Herbert Jeffrey Hancock (born April 12, 1940) is an American jazz musician, bandleader, and composer. He started his career with trumpeter Donald Byrd's group. Hancock soon joined the Miles Davis Quintet, where he helped to redefine the role of ...

* '' Lite Me Up'' (Columbia, 1982) With Eddie Henderson * ''

'' (Blue Note, 1976) * '' Comin' Through'' (Capitol, 1977) With Sadao Watanabe *
Autumn Blow
' (Inner City Records, 1977) With Jean-Luc Ponty * '' Upon the Wings of Music'' (Atlantic, 1975) * ''

Aurora An aurora ( aurorae or auroras), also commonly known as the northern lights (aurora borealis) or southern lights (aurora australis), is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly observed in high-latitude regions (around the Arc ...

'' (Atlantic, 1976) With Letizia Gambi * ''Introducing Letizia Gambi'' (Via Veneto Jazz, 2012) With Wallace Roney * '' A Place in Time'' (HighNote, 2016) With

Cindy Blackman Cindy Blackman (born November 18, 1959), known as Cindy Blackman Santana since she married guitarist Carlos Santana in 2010, is an American jazz and Rock music, rock drummer performing since the 80s. Blackman has recorded several jazz albums as ...

* '' Another Lifetime'' (4Q, 2010)

Filmography

*'' American Fiction'' (2023) * ''Agents of Change'' (2016) * ''Burning Sands'' (2008) * '' For One Night'' (2006, TV) * ''Just a Dream'' (2002) * '' Our America'' (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'' (2000, TV) * '' Ruby Bridges'' (1998, TV) * ''America's Dream'' (1996, TV) * ''A. Philip Randolph: For Jobs and Freedom'' (1996, TV) * '' The Steve Harvey Show'' (1996) TV series (Main Theme & 122 episodes) * ''The Midnight Hour'' (1990) TV series (unknown episodes) * ''Without You I'm Nothing'' (1990) * '' Hollywood Shuffle'' (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'' (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 record chart television programme, made by the BBC and broadcast weekly between 1January 1964 and 30 July 2006. The programme was the world's longest-running weekly music show. For most of its histo ...

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

American Bandstand ''American Bandstand'' (AB) is an American Music television, music performance and dance television series that aired in various iterations from 1952 to 1989. It was hosted by Dick Clark who also served as the program's Television producer, pr ...

'', Herself (One episode, 1980)

Musical directing

Television awards and specials

* 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)

Television series and miniseries

* ''The Midnight Hour''For unknown episodes. (1990) * '' The Women of Brewster Place'' (1989, special musical consultant) * ''Partners in Crime'' (1988, musical director)

Albums

* '' No Strings'' by

Sheena Easton Sheena Shirley Easton (; born 27 April 1959) is a Scottish singer and actress who achieved recognition in an episode of the reality television series ''The Big Time (TV series), The Big Time: Pop Singer'', which recorded her attempts to gain a ...

(1993, record producer)

Notes

References

Sources

External links

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

Patrice Rushen Interview
at NAMM Oral History Collection {{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 American 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 Strut Records artists 20th-century American singer-songwriters 21st-century American singer-songwriters African-American songwriters 21st-century African-American women Singer-songwriters from California 20th-century American women pianists 21st-century American women pianists Locke High School alumni Jazz fusion keyboardists