STRANGE INTERLUDE: NEA JAZZ MASTER: PATRICE RUSHEN?
The SS JAZZ:
PATRICE RUSHEN? NEA JAZZ MASTER? Come on now, all you Substack jazz critics out there. Time to rationalize this in the usual culturally condescending way as some sort of Black Music Continuum. Even though her music has nothing to do with jazz. So what are you all waiting for?
Not a good pick, but not as outlandish as it's being made out to be. She actually had/has great jazz piano and composition/arranging chops, did two really good albums on Prestige in the mid-70's (when she was like 20) with sidemen such as Joe Henderson, Hadley Caliman, Ndugu Leon Chancler, etc. Did great work on a Leon Thomas tribute album put out by Babatunde Lea, with Dwight Trible and Ernie Watts. She's totally legit when she does jazz, not a joke at all. But she does not have the canon to be an appropriate choice for the award.
Three years back while at the Garden Stage at Monterrey, this firebrand saxophonist Lakecia Jackson was tearing the house down with a powerful performance. Between numbers she would make remarks about things, like it was John Coltrane's birthday, and hence they swung some Coltrane. One of her comments was about how Patrice Rushen had sold out. Dig, those two early albums by Rushen smoked. On one of those album covers we see Ms Rushen on that same Garden Stage next to a piano, smiling. So, yes, if Lakecia says she sold out, she sold out.