Patrice Rushen

Baby, please forget me not

I want you to remember

To understand the importance of a record like "Straight From The Heart", you have to start with the numbers, or rather with a single fact that explains everything: the singles "Forget Me Nots" and "Remind Me" have been sampled in more than two hundred and thirty songs combined. When you add that they've been plundered by stylistically wildly different musicians across a span of three decades, the scale - pardon, the influence - of this landmark album becomes even clearer: essential not just for its driving hits, but as a trailblazer for a jazz-funk sound that's melodically and rhythmically tight, dense with classy nuance.

At the same time, it's also worth taking a step back. In the mid-1970s, Los Angeles native Patrice Louise Rushen was a young, classically trained pianist looking to make it, particularly in the world of American pop and soul. Her climb to the top as a producer and all-around musician, however, was far from instant, given that she was an African American woman. Yet her talent was so boundless that with the arrival of the more "open-minded" 1980s, that climb became immediate, thanks above all to her strong bond with Quincy Jones, who, as usual, recognized and nurtured his friend Patrice's boundless potential.

Just to give you an even clearer idea: Rushen was the first woman to serve as musical director for the 46th, 47th and 48th Grammy Awards, as well as the first in forty-three years to direct the equally prestigious Emmy Awards. Patrice was also chosen to score the NAACP Image Awards, a role she held for twelve consecutive years, and she remains the first woman to have directed the People's Choice Awards and HBO's Comic Relief. As if that weren't enough, she was also the only woman to lead the orchestra and arrange all the music for a late-night TV talk show: CBS's The Midnight Hour. These are just some of the major roles entrusted to her over the years. There's also an equally long list of soundtracks composed for series and award-winning films.

Just TV studios and film sets? Not at all. The Californian musician directed the massive world tour for Janet Jackson's "Janet", just to name one. Finally, before diving into her masterpiece album, it's worth listing a few of her collaborations: Stevie Wonder, Herbie Hancock, Prince, Lionel Hampton, Carlos Santana, Boyz II Men, George Benson, Jean Luc Ponty, Tom Jones, Nancy Wilson, Michael Jackson, Dianne Reeves, Sheena Easton, Stanley Turrentine, and Joshua Redman. Anything else?

Premises aside, "Straight From The Heart" is Rushen's seventh album, released in the spring of 1982 via Elektra. Beyond its three Grammy nominations the following year, the record enjoyed almost instant success, reaching No. 14 on the Billboard 200. It's a synth-funk record with traces of jazz scattered pretty much everywhere, capable of reaching (and sometimes surpassing) the disco horizon that so many jazz-bred musicians of the era were aiming for.

"I was looking for different ways to experiment, and synthesizers expanded the palette available to me," Patrice Rushen recalls of the album's early sketches, as reported on her official website. And on the global hit "Forget Me Nots," she says: "Bassist Freddie Washington played the bass line during a jam at my family's house. I caught it, we kept experimenting with the groove, then I developed the lyrics and the chorus. It was simply a matter of recognizing exactly when the best moment arrived. I turned the album in to the label, but the A&R rep told me: 'We don't like anything here.' So I immediately realized they weren't going to give us any support, so producer Charles Mims, myself and Freddie decided to hire a promotion company to start working the single. Even though it took a while to get support, it was worth it."

The single indeed reached No. 23 on the Billboard Hot 100 in July 1982, proving to be a standout cut from a treasure trove that remains, to this day, a regular source of samples for rappers and beyond. Of course everyone will remember "Men In Black" by Will Smith and "Fastlove" by George Michael, both built, to varying degrees, around the theme of "Forget Me Nots." But names like La Bouche, Randy Crawford, Ice Cube, Abc, and the more recent wave of vaporwave and future funk producers who have taken it up as a sacred text should also be mentioned: Bluntside, Architecture In Tokyo, Sunset Network 91, Mikazuki Bigwave, and so on.

The album itself is an array of funky dynamism and supreme jazzy sway, starting with the crackling bass of the opener "Forget Me Nots," followed by the sparkling disco-boogie of "I Was Tired Of Being Alone," with an irresistible groove that can (get everyone to) move almost as much as the following "All We Need," which in turn retraces the same rhythm as the opening single, while the backing vocals from Karen Evans and Lynn Davis bring out its potentially gospel soul. The instrumental "Number One" confirms Rushen's gift for weaving sinuous textures fit for atmospheres somewhere between a cop thriller and an erotic film. Best listened to with the sheets still warm is especially the soul ballad "Where There Is Love," just orchestral enough not to weigh down the rest of the record. A track also known for being sampled in "Temperature's Rising" by Mobb Deep.

The soul of "Straight From The Heart," as magnetic as Ray Parker Jr.'s was back then, is steered by a formidable team of musicians who constantly elevate its depth, like the aforementioned "Ready" Freddie Washington, doing exactly as he pleases on bass, and Marlo Henderson, sumptuous on guitar on "Breakout." More hushed moments like "Remind Me" are so timeless, for all their divine production, that they could easily fit on a contemporary nu-soul record, enriching its tracklist accordingly. There's even a folk guitar in the finale, backed by the Brazilian percussion of Paulinho Da Costa ("(She Will) Take You Down To Love"), for yet another gem within a milestone of music at large.

The miracle of 1982 was followed by seven more LPs spread out over the years, bringing her solo album total to fourteen, plus a greatest-hits anthology released by Rhino Records in 1997. Patrice has also recorded two albums with the world-renowned jazz supergroup The Meeting, which includes, among others, Ndugu Chancler and Ernie Watts.

As she likes to recall on her own website, the American pianist today spends her free time working closely with the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, the "Grammy In The Schools" program, and other organizations dedicated to creating music education and mentoring projects for young people in underprivileged neighborhoods, confirming a total, liberating approach that makes her one of the most deeply committed and pedagogically minded "pop" musicians of the 20th century and beyond.

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12/10/2025