Patrice Rushen - Watch Out! (1987)

Three women I wish I'd paid more attention to during the 1980s:

1. Angela Bofill
2. Brenda Russell
3. Patrice Rushen

Rushen is an accomplished pianist but I think ofttimes record management pushed her towards pop/R&B chart success. The record executive in this particular case is Clive Davis as this was Rushen's only album for Arista after leaving the Elektra label. The versatile Rushen is difficult to categorize and her current wikipedia entry calls her a jazz pianist and R&B singer, so let's just go with that. This 1987 album is firmly in the R&B camp. I'm not a huge fan of late '80s R&B production tropes, but there's some good stuff here regardless of trend-chasing synth sounds and drum programming.

Ratings/reviews:

• Billboard: "fails to coalesce into a uniformly strong showcase"
• CashBox: "a smooth, sensual collection of sophisticated R&B/pop crossover"
• R&B Report: "a winner"
• Philadelphia Inquirer (★★★): Rushen has developed into a formidable, versatile talent."
• The Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz (1999): ★★★

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard 200: #77
• Billboard R&B: #19
• CashBox: #60
• Rolling Stone: #45

Tracks: Three singles were released: Watch Out (#9 R&B, #22 dance), Anything Can Happen (#51 R&B), and Come Back To Me (#65 R&B, #37 dance). Those are three of my favorites here, along with All My Love and Tender Lovin'. There are tunes that try to capitalize on successes of mid-'80s Pointer Sisters (Breakin' All The Rules), Whitney Houston (Somewhere), New Edition (the aforementioned Anything Can Happen), and Prince (Burnin'). There's filler, but there's no track that will have you reaching for the skip button.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None, but I'll continue to pick up any CDs I see from the three artists listed above.

Previously revisited for the blog:
Signature (1997)

Patrice Rushen - Signature (1997)

Note: this CD released using HDCD encoding.

I picked this CD out of a used bin at some point during the past few years and I was pleasantly surprised to hear Rushen putting out a mostly instrumental smooth jazz album featuring guests such as Kirk Whalum and Gerald Albright. Rushen produced and arranged the tracks and wrote all but three of them. Fans expecting 1980's pop/R&B may be disappointed, but not this guy. And while there's plenty of synth work on the album (it was the '90s, after all), I'm very pleased with the fact there's a heaping helping of acoustic piano on the tracks. I had never heard of this album before purchasing it, but I'm very glad I ran across it - it's been in fairly regular rotation since its purchase.

The album was nominated for a Grammy Award in the category of Best Contemporary Jazz Performance, eventually losing to Into the Sun by Randy Brecker.

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard 200: Did not chart
• Billboard Jazz: #9

Tracks: My favorites are the originals Almost Home, Wise Ol' Souls, Arrival. and the beautiful ballad Days Gone By. We're also treated to good covers of Sade's Sweetest Taboo and The Stylistics' Hurry Up This Way Again. 

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: I recently saw Rushen perform live and she included track 10 from this album, Arrival, in her setlist. She put on a spectacular show and, while I knew she was a good player, I had no idea how good until I saw her live - simply amazing.