Rodney Franklin (born September 16, 1958) is an American jazz pianist and

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

Biography

Franklin was born in Berkeley, California in September, 1958. In 1964, aged six, he took jazz piano lessons at the Washington Elementary School and was taught by Dr Herb Wong who was a jazz journalist, disc jockey and music teacher. In 1972 at the young age of 14 he led the funk-jazz band ''In One Piece'' (alt. In One Peace) performing his first 3 recordings at a studio in Ray Dobar's House of Music in Berkeley, California. Produced by George Semper, only one of the songs has been released on the 2003 Inner City Sounds 2X LP Compilation released on Luv N'Haight

Ubiquity Recordings Ubiquity Records is an independent American Record Label that focuses on multiple genres, including but not limited to hip hop, electronic, funk, Latin, soul, jazz, singer/songwriters and other musical genres. History Ubiquity Records was co ...

. Prior to signing up with CBS Records in 1978, Franklin worked with

John Handy John Richard Handy III (born February 3, 1933) is an American jazz musician most commonly associated with the alto saxophone. He also sings and plays the tenor and baritone saxophone, saxello, clarinet, and oboe. Biography Handy was born in Da ...

in San Francisco, as well as Bill Summers,

Freddie Hubbard Frederick Dewayne Hubbard (April 7, 1938 – December 29, 2008) was an American jazz trumpeter. He played bebop, hard bop, and post-bop styles from the early 1960s onwards. His unmistakable and influential tone contributed to new perspectives fo ...

and Marlena Shaw. His debut CBS album was ''In the Center'' (1978), a jazz fusion album featuring "On the Path" and "I Like the Music Make It Hot". Although aged 20 when he recorded the album, he had already developed his own sound which was influenced by McCoy Tyner and

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Chick Corea Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea (June 12, 1941 – February 9, 2021) was an American jazz composer, pianist, keyboardist, bandleader, and occasional percussionist. His compositions "Spain", " 500 Miles High", "La Fiesta", "Armando's Rhumba", and ...

, Lonnie Liston Smith and George Semper. In 1980 the album ''You'll Never Know'' he had major

chart A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent tabu ...

success with " The Groove" (it reached number 7 in the UK Singles Chart). The track was released on both 7" and 12" format. It created a UK

dance Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

craze called 'The Freeze' which was started up by DJ Chris Hill. Additional albums which were also recorded on the CBS label have included ''Rodney Franklin'' (1980), ''Endless Flight'' (1981), ''Learning to Love'' (1982), ''Marathon'' (1984) (probably his most famous in the UK,

produced Producer or producers may refer to: Occupations *Producer (agriculture), a farm operator *A stakeholder of economic production *Film producer, supervises the making of films **Executive producer, contributes to a film's budget and usually does not ...

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range: ** Bass (instrument), including: ** Acoustic bass gui ...

player Stanley Clarke and the LP which released a single called ''Stay on in the Groove''), ''Skydance'' (1985) and ''It Takes Two'' (1986). In 1988 he moved over to the

BMG BMG may refer to: Organizations * Music publishing companies: ** Bertelsmann Music Group, a 1987–2008 division of Bertelsmann that was purchased by Sony on October 1, 2008 *** Sony BMG, a 2004–2008 joint venture of Bertelsmann and Sony that wa ...

record label and recorded ''Diamond Inside of You'' which introduced vocals by Jennifer Holliday on the single, "Gotta Give It Up". In addition, Franklin has also produced and released an album on Nova Records called ''Love Dancin' '' in 1992.

Discography

Albums

Singles

References

External links

Rodney Franklin
discography at SoulAndFunkmusic.com * * video "Stay On in the Groove" (1984)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Franklin, Rodney 1958 births Living people Musicians from Berkeley, California American jazz pianists American male pianists American jazz composers American male jazz composers 20th-century American pianists Jazz musicians from California 21st-century American pianists 20th-century American male musicians 21st-century American male musicians