“Although classical music was at one time the pop music of its time, it isn't any more. Its relevance now is only as good as the people who can make it current by performances that encompass tradition, but are also in tune with the present and the future.”
TRAINED as a classical pianist, this diminutive singer and songwriter from Los Angeles, California, USA attacked the heavy synthesizer music of the late 1970s with funky grooves and slinky vocals. Patrice Rushen (b. 1954) eventually became one of the first female musicians to successfully navigate the crossovers from funk to jazz to R&B to pop fusion and, in recent years, to composing film scores for orchestra.
