NOVEMBER 13, 2016 – Singer/songwriter/musician/producer LEON RUSSELL (b. April 2, 1942 in Lawton, Oklahoma as Claude Russell Bridges) died at age 74 in Nashville, Tennessee. He was survived by his wife Janet Lee Constantine and six children: Blue, Teddy Jack, Tina Rose, Sugaree, Honey and Coco.
Russell was a and both a Rock and Roll and a Songwriter Hall of Fame member who collaborated with music legends like Elton John, George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Joe Cocker, and the Rolling Stones. His music-making drew on both his classical training and his Southern roots, and he played everything from standards to surf-rock, from million-sellers to pop throwaways. He was glimpsed on television as a member of the Shindogs, the house band for the prime-time rock show “Shindig!” in the mid-1960s. Then with his trademark top hat, hair well past his shoulders, a long, lush beard, an Oklahoma drawl and his fingers splashing two-fisted barrelhouse piano chords, Russell cut a flamboyant figure in the early 1970s.
Russell started classical piano lessons when he was 4, played baritone horn in his high school marching band and also learned trumpet. At 14, Russell started gigging in Oklahoma and lied about his age to land a gig at a Tulsa nightclub, playing behind Ronnie Hawkins & the Hawks. Hawkins found out, but since it was a dry state at the time, he could play clubs without being old enough to drink. Soon after he graduated from high school, Jerry Lee Lewis hired him and his band to back him on tour for two months.
Two years later, he settled in Los Angeles, calling himself Leon Russell, taking the name from a friend who had lent him an ID so he could play California club dates while underage. He began studying guitar under the legendary James Burton (Rick Nelson, Elvis Presley), something he recalled fonbly, “I used to go to the Palomino all the time and Curtis Lee was the bass player for a guy who’d been there for years named Gene Davis, and he quit and got that job over at the El Rancho Grande and got James Burton to play guitar and me to play piano and that’s where I met James.”
Soon, hr landed studio work appearing on sessions with Dorsey Burnette and Glen Campbell in Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound Orchestra, and he played sessions for Frank Sinatra, Sam Cooke, Aretha Franklin, the Ventures and the Monkees, among many others. His piano playing is heard on “Mr. Tambourine Man” by the Byrds, “A Taste of Honey” by Herb Alpert, “Live With Me” by the Rolling Stones and all of the Beach Boys’ early albums, including “Pet Sounds.” He appeared on many of the finest pop singles of the ’60s, also arranging classics like Ike & Tina Turner’s monumental “River Deep, Mountain High”; other hits bearing his input include Gary Lewis & the Playboys’ “This Diamond Ring” and Herb Alpert’s “A Taste of Honey.”
In 1967, Russell built his own recording studio, teaming with guitarist Marc Benno to record the acclaimed “Look Inside the Asylum Choir” LP. While touring with Delaney & Bonnie, he scored his first songwriting hit with Joe Cocker’s reading of “Delta Lady,” and in 1970, upon founding his own Shelter Records imprint with producer/songwriter Denny Cordell, and he drew recognition as a co-producer, arranger and musician on Joe Cocker’s second album “Joe Cocker!,” which included Russell’s song “Delta Lady.”
When Cocker’s Grease Band fell apart days before an American tour, Russell assembled “Mad Dogs & Englishmen,” a big, boisterous band that included three drummers and a 10-member choir and organized the legendary “Mad Dogs & Englishmen” tour. Its 1970 double live album and a tour film became a showcase for Russell as well as for Cocker and the album reached #2 on the Billboard album chart.
Following sessions for B.B. King, Eric Clapton, and Bob Dylan, he became music director at George Harrison’s 1971 “Concert for Bangladesh” in New York City as well as performed, and had hits of his own, including “Tight Rope.” Many other of his songs became hits for others, among them “Superstar” (written with Bonnie Bramlett) for the Carpenters and “This Masquerade” for George Benson.
Russell also released his first solo album in 1970 which included “A Song for You” and he had studio appearances from Cocker, Eric Clapton, two members of the Beatles and three from the Rolling Stones. But Russell’s second album, “Leon Russell and the Shelter People,” fared better commercially, reaching #17 on the Billboard chart.
he music Russell made on his own put a scruffy, casual surface on rich musical hybrids, interweaving soul, country, blues, jazz, gospel, pop and classical music. Like Willie Nelson, who collaborated with him, and Ray Charles, whose 1993 recording of “A Song for You” won a Grammy Award, Russell made a broad, sophisticated palette of American music sound down-home and natural. More than 100 acts have recorded his “A Song for You,” which Russell said he wrote in 10 minutes.
After touring with the Rolling Stones, Russell increasingly focused on his solo career, reaching the #2 spot with 1972’s “Carney” and scoring his first pop hit with the single “Tight Rope.” While the success of 1973’s three-LP set “Leon Live” further established his reputation as a top concert draw, response to the country-inspired studio effort “Hank Wilson’s Back” was considerably more lukewarm, as was the reception afforded to 1974’s “Stop All That Jazz” which featured the Gap Band, also from Oklahoma. The 1975 album “Will O’ the Wisp”, however, restored his commercial luster, thanks in large part to the lovely single “Lady Blue.”
In June of 1975, Russell married singer Mary McCreary; the following year the couple collaborated on “The Wedding Album,” issued through his newly formed Paradise Records label. Also in 1976, the Russell-penned “This Masquerade” earned a Grammy Award for singer George Benson. Russell and McCreary reunited for 1977’s “Make Love to the Music,” and upon completing the solo “Americana,” Russell teamed with Willie Nelson for 1979’s “Willie & Leon.”
After his popularity had peaked in the 1970s, he shied away from self-promotion and largely set aside rock, though he continued working. Russell delved into various idioms over the next decades, mostly recording for independent labels. He toured and recorded with the New Grass Revival, adding his piano and voice to their string-band lineup. He recorded blues, Christmas songs, gospel songs and instrumentals.
He collaborated with Willie Nelson in 1979 on “One for the Road,” a double LP of pop and country standards that sold half a million copies. That same year he married Janet Lee Constantine. He then spent the next two years touring with his bluegrass band, the New Grass Revival, issuing a live LP in 1981; although Paradise shut down later that year, the label was reactivated for 1984’s “Hank Wilson, Vol. 2” and “Solid State.” Russell spent the remainder of the decade largely outside of music and did not resurface until issuing the Bruce Hornsby-produced “Anything Can Happen” in 1992. The album appeared to little fanfare, however, and another long period of relative inactivity followed prior to the 1998 release of “Hank Wilson, Vol. 3: Legend in My Time.” “Face in the Crowd” appeared a year later. Moving into the new century, Russell issued “Moonlight & Love Songs,” an album of cover songs, in 2002, followed by “Angel in Disguise” five years later in 2007. A trio of releases, “Almost Piano,” “Bad Country” and “In Your Dreams” appeared in 2008.
A call in 2009 from Elton John, whom Russell had supported in the early 1970s, led to a co-headlining tour when Elton suggested recording a duet album. Produced by T-Bone Burnett with guest appearances by Neil Young and Brian Wilson, “The Union” was greeted by strong reviews and sales, reviving Russell’s career in a single stroke. Russell also sat in on Costello’s 2010 album, “National Ransom.” Then he bought a new bus and returned to the road, on his own. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2011, and at the ceremony Elton called him “the master of space and time” and added, “He sang, he wrote and he played just how I wanted to do it.”
Russell eventually got around to recording a solo comeback called “Life Journey” which appeared in April 2014. Russell’s health had had significant setbacks in recent years. In 2010, he underwent surgery for a brain fluid leak and was treated for heart failure. In July 2016, he had a heart attack and at the time of his death was scheduled for further surgery, according to a news release from the historical society of Oklahoma.
SOURCES
http://www.leonrussellrecords.com/
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0751287/
https://www.rockhall.com/inductees/leon-russell
http://ultimateclassicrock.com/leon-russell-songs/
https://www.allmusic.com/…/leon-russell-mn0000816…/biography
http://beat-magazine.co.uk/…/jfs-memory-time-machine-leon-r…
http://www.rollingstone.com/…/leon-russell-renowned-songwri…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Russell