![]() Herb Alpert once said that when Leon played, the whole rhythm section would start coming to him,” the author said. According to Janovitz, Russell’s strength as a session guy was “that he could always find a place in the music. Russell’s piano work held such distinction, it even managed to stand out amid Phil Spector’s cacophonous Wall of Sound productions. Other musicians recognized it right away, leading to offers to come to Los Angeles to join its rich session scene. Because of the nerve damage to his right side, Russell had developed a unique playing style that relied on his powerful left hand, helping him create his own rhythms. By 14, he was playing in local clubs where his band was discovered by Jerry Lee Lewis, who declared him the better piano player and, so, took him and his group on the road. At the same time, Russell showed a remarkable facility for music from toddlerhood. His father was yet another bully who eventually abandoned the family. “He was this nerdy guy with a limp, and big horn-rimmed glasses.” “He wasn’t a sports guy in this jock-y southern town,” Janovitz said. It made him the target of bullies while growing up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in the 1950s. He was born with cerebral palsy, causing some paralysis to his right side which resulted in a limp. The hardships in Russell’s life go back to its very start. By his own description, that fall left him “in a ditch by the side of the highway of life”. The darker side of that difference, along with a clutch of other factors, contributed to a fall in Russell’s career as swift and steep as his rise. “In every way, Leon was different.”Ĭlaude Russell Bridges (AKA Leon Russell), piano prodigy, circa 1946. “The way Leon’s mind worked was not like other people’s,” said singer Rita Coolidge, who performed with him on some key projects and who was romantically involved with him for a while. “He struggled with his depressive side his whole life.” “Leon was a deeply insecure guy,” said Bill Janovitz, author of a new book that offers the first holistic study of the musician, titled Leon Russell: The Master of Space and Time’s Journey Through Rock & Roll History. Remarkably, he accomplished all this while suffering from what has alternately been described by friends, and by himself, as either bipolar depression, paranoia or Asperger’s syndrome, contributing to crippling bouts of stage fright. Even before he became widely known, Russell had an esteemed career as a first call session pianist, performing with the Wrecking Crew on recordings by everyone from Frank Sinatra to The Beach Boys to the rococo productions of Phil Spector. ![]() ![]() In that timeframe, he created a band that became one of music’s most legendary live acts made Mad Dogs & Englishmen, for Joe Cocker stole the show from a white hot lineup of artists at the Concert for Bangladesh became a star in his own right with solo albums that featured songs that became standards, including Song for You and This Masquerade and inspired the icon Willie Nelson to create his enduring outlaw country persona. During the core years of classic rock – between 19 – Russell was music’s North Star, pioneering a distinctly American sound that changed the career paths of stars, including Eric Clapton, George Harrison and Elton John. ![]() How ironic, then, that such a man would wind up, for a certain time, in rock music’s spotlight. ![]()
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