Patrice Rushen Posh

Description

The landmark 1980 album, representing a period of consolidation for Patrice Rushen. Her studio reputation as a go-to pianist and arranger among other artists and musicians was well established and was growing exponentially. Although never originally planning a career as a solo artist, she had built this side of her work through three Prestige albums and two sophisticated soul and disco albums for Elektra, Patrice and Pizzazz. I was lucky to have a group of musicians that I knew well by the time of these recording sessions, remembers Patrice. I had my pick of really incredible players because of all of the studio work I was doing. I also played with Lee Ritenour, Harvey Mason and others almost on a weekly basis at The Baked Potato club in L.A.

Tracks include the singles Dont Blame Me, Look Up! and Never Gonna Give You Up. Never Gonna Give You Up came out of playing ideas at home. Bassist Freddie Washington was living with my family while he tried to get a foothold in L.A.s music scene and that groove came out of those jams. With The Dream, I had been listening to Minnie Ripertons Come To My Garden, one of my favourite albums. With Charles Stepneys arrangements, I saw that he didnt have to use large instrumentation to be orchestral in his approach. So, The Dream was a homage to that kind of writing.

After Posh, we had a much better idea from the performance side what was important in our music and that informed my next album, Straight From The Heart. We took a little break after Posh was released, although I was still writing and working regularly on scores for film and TV. That had always been my main focus in my music. –Strut / K7