BIOGRAPHY
Patrice Louise Rushen was born September 30, 1954, began playing piano at age three and was giving classical recitals by six. She attended Locke High School and earned a music degree from USC. Winning a competition at seventeen led to a performance at the Monterey Jazz Festival and a deal with Prestige, where she released Prelusion (1974), Before the Dawn (1975) and Shout It Out (1977) before moving to Elektra in 1978. At Elektra she found rare creative autonomy, writing, arranging and producing dance-inflected jazz and R&B on her own terms. Her 1982 album Straight from the Heart produced "Forget Me Nots," a Grammy-nominated single that became a Top 40 pop, Top 5 R&B and Top 5 dance hit, later sampled by Will Smith, George Michael and Kirk Franklin. She went on to become the first woman to serve as music director for the Grammy Awards (46th-48th ceremonies), was composer in residence with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in 2000-2001, received an honorary doctorate from Berklee in 2005, and chaired popular music at USC.