Straight From The Heart, released in 1982, features liberal use of synthesizers, always at the hands of Rushen herself. We now had synths readily available, which widened the palette and colours available to us," says Rushen, who often refers to music in chromatic terms. "I was looking at different ways to experiment with the sounds on my records. Synthesizers had been used since the '60s, but it was the dance music frenzy of the '80s that saw synths used in every recording studios. The '80s brought a marked difference in Rushen's sound, aligning with a wave of change for dance music at large. Rushen leaned further into pop with her 1979 release, Pizzaz, with catchy hooks and plenty of handclaps on highlights like "Haven't You Heard." "Music Of The Earth," originally released on Patrice and the first track on Remind Me, is a successful balancing act between Rushen's breezy doo-wopping, an indelibly funky guitar and a brassy melody. It was on Patrice, the first album released by Elektra in 1978, that Rushen introduced her voice. Unlike Quincy, she was also the voice and the face of her own songs.
PATRICE RUSHEN REMIND ME FULL
With many of her songs calling for a full brass ensemble on top of percussion, backing vocals and the works, many pieces list over a dozen collaborators. Like her mentor, Quincy Jones, another multi-instrumentalist who burst into pop from the world of jazz, she used her skills to seek out the best collaborators to bring her compositions to life. The compilation features more than 90 minutes of Rushen's most radio-friendly R&B. A selection of these recordings have been rereleased on Remind Me: The Classic Elektra Recordings 1978-1984. She explained her shift from technical jazz to pop in her appearance on Soul Train, saying she saw music's turn toward "getting back to the groove again," with the kind of dance-oriented rhythms and gyrating basslines of '60s funk getting new life at the dawn of the '80s.Īlways the prolific composer, Rushen released five albums in her seven years at Elektra. The label was looking to flesh out its new pop/jazz division and Rushen, 23 years old and already a virtuoso jazz pianist and arranger, was ready to add pop to her expanding repertoire of musical styles. "Sophisticated dance music." That's how Patrice Rushen describes the music she and her contemporaries were making in the late '70s when she was signed to Elektra Records.
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