When a 20-year-old
Patrice Rushen recorded her debut album,
Prelusion, in 1974, she was still four years away from becoming a full-time R&B singer. Instrumental jazz was her main focus, and there was every reason to believe that she would become a major figure in the jazz world. The L.A. native showed considerable promise on this entirely instrumental LP, which is best described as straight-ahead post-bop with fusion references and features such impressive soloists as tenor saxophonist
Joe Henderson, trombonist
George Bohanon, and trumpeter
Oscar Brashear. Playing both acoustic piano and electric keyboards,
Rushen brings a strong
Herbie Hancock influence to promising originals like "Haw-Right Now," "Shortie's Portion," and "Puttered Bopcorn." Nonetheless,
Rushen was an appealing improviser in her own right, and one can only speculate on where her career in jazz might have gone had she not switched to R&B singing in 1978. In 1998, Fantasy reissued
Prelusion and
Rushen's second album, Before the Dawn, on a single 77-minute CD; unfortunately, "Puttered Bopcorn" was deleted due to space limitations. [In 2007, the album was issued on CD in Japan.] ~ Alex Henderson