Patrice Rushen
Patrice Rushen ( born September 30, 1954 in Los Angeles / California) is an American rhythm and blues singer, pianist and composer.
Rushen received from the age of three years of classical piano training. In 1972, she won at the Monterey Jazz Festival a solo competition and was awarded a contract with the label Prestige Records, where she released three albums. In 1978 she came to Elektra Records, where another five albums released. With titles like Have not You Heard, Forget Me Nots, Feels So Real, Watch Out, You Remind Me, and Never Gonna Give You Up reached the top ten rhythm-and - blues hits. The title of Forget Me Nots, which won her a Grammy, was repeatedly sampled so as for the title song of the movie Men in Black.
Since the mid- 1990s, she has worked regularly with the group The Meeting, beside with Stevie Wonder, Herbie Hancock, Prince, Lionel Hampton, Carlos Santana, George Benson, Jean -Luc Ponty, Tom Jones, Nancy Wilson, Michael Jackson, Dianne Reeves, Sheena Easton, Stanley Turrentine and Joshua Redman.
Rushen composed the music for several television films and series such as the Emmy -nominated The Killing Yard ( with Alan Alda ) and Just A Dream and Our America, which won the Sundance Film Award; also for movies like Wainting To Exhale, Without You I'm Nothing, and Robert Townsend's Hollywood Shuffle. She was also musical director of the CBS talk show The Midnight Hour and the world tour of Janet Jackson.
2000/2001 she was composer in residence of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and composed since several orchestral works, including a symphony. She also dedicated to the musical young people, in Los Angeles, including the NARAS 's Grammy In The Schools program.