Straight From the Heart

Personnel: Patrice Rushen (vocals, electric piano, synthesizer, piano, percussion, Clavinet, guitar); Paul M. Jackson, Jr. (acoustic guitar); Wali Ali, Marlo Henderson (guitar); Gerald "Wonderfunk" Albright (saxophone); Raymond Lee Brown (trumpet, flugelhorn); Clay Lawry (trombone); Charles Mims, Jr. (electric piano, piano, synthesizer); "Ready" Freddie Washington (bass); Melvin Webb, Tony St. James, James Gadson, Ollie Brown (drums); Ulysses Dupree, Paulinho Da Costa (percussion); Roy Galloway, Jeanette Hawes, Lynn Davis, Karen Evans, Brenda Russell (background vocals).
Producers: Charles Mims, Jr., Patrice Rushen.
Reissue producers: David McLees, Lloyd Hardy.
Recorded at Conway Studios, Hollywood, California. Includes liner notes by Lloyd Hardy.
Long out-of-print, this sultry'n'sassy landmark recording by one of the pioneer do-it-all women in black popular music has been lovingly re-issued on CD. The package comes complete with copious liner notes, 12-inch dance mixes AND single versions of "Forget Me Nots," the Rushen/Brenda Russell duet "Breakout" and the instrumental smash "Number One."
Classy, jazz-informed disco with solid-rock bottom commingles with impossibly lush ballads as composer/arranger/multi-instrumentalist Rushen weaves it all together with her exquisite voice. Produced by Rushen with the aid of Charles Mims, Jr. and a bevy of studio aces, STRAIGHT FROM THE HEART gets a slight edge over the simultaneously re-issued BEST OF PATRICE RUSHEN for its organic continuity. A stone classic.