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Love Life (Brenda Russell Album)
''Love Life'' is the second studio album by American singer/songwriter Brenda Russell, released in 1981 by A&M Records. Critical reception ''People'' described the LP as "eight of her pleasantly upbeat songs delivered with sassy-to-soothing vocals". Phyl Garland of ''Stereo Review'' called the album "fresh, accessible and delightful". Track listing Personnel * Brenda Russell – lead vocals, backing vocals (2-8), acoustic piano (2-7), handclaps (4), clavinet (6) * Neil Larsen – Fender Rhodes, acoustic piano (1), organ (4, 5), handclaps (4), Wurlitzer electric piano (6), backing vocals (8) * Steve Porcaro – synthesizers (1-5) * Don Grusin – synthesizers (8) * Steve Lukather – guitar solo (1, 5), electric guitar (2, 6, 7), guitar (4, 5, 8), handclaps (4), first guitar solo (8) * Dean Parks – guitar (1, 3, 4, 5), electric guitar (2, 7), acoustic guitar solo (2), acoustic guitar (7) * Buzz Feiten – guitar (8), second guitar solo (8), backing vocals (8) * Abraham ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brenda Russell
Brenda Russell (née Gordon; born April 8, 1949) is an American singer-songwriter, producer, and keyboardist. Russell has a diverse musical range which encompasses R&B, pop, soul, dance, and jazz. She has received five Grammy nominations. Life and background Brenda Gordon was born to musician parents, with her mother being a singer/songwriter and her father Gus Gordon (1926-2019), a one-time member of the Ink Spots. She spent her early years in Canada after moving to Hamilton, Ontario, at the age of 12. As a teenager she began performing in local bands and was recruited to sing in a Toronto-based girl group called The Tiaras alongside Jackie Richardson, Arlene Trotman, and Colina Phillips. The group's only single, "Where Does All The Time Go", was released on Barry Records in 1968 but was unsuccessful. Career 1960s to 1970s When Russell was 14 years of age she met the group Diane Brooks, Eric Mercury and The Soul Searchers. She would later open for them. In her late teens, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Don Grusin
Don Grusin (born April 22, 1941) is an American jazz keyboardist, composer, and record producer. He is the younger brother of Dave Grusin. Career Don Grusin grew up in Littleton, Colorado. His father, a native of Latvia, was a classical violinist. His brother, Dave Grusin, is a pianist, record producer, and co-founder of GRP Records. Grusin graduated from the University of Colorado Boulder with a bachelor's degree in sociology and a master's degree in economics. In the early 1970s, he was an economics professor in Guadalajara, Mexico. Soon after, he taught economics at Foothill College in California. Grusin performed in Bogota, Colombia, as a member of Azteca, a Latin jazz fusion band led by Pete Escovedo that included Escovedo's daughter, drummer Sheila E. The trip sparked a lifelong interest in Latin music. In 1975, Quincy Jones invited him to tour with his band, and Grusin was persuaded to leave teaching for a career in music. He worked as a studio musician on albums by Rand ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Al Schmitt
Albert Harry Schmitt (April 17, 1930 – April 26, 2021) was an American recording engineer and record producer. He won twenty Grammy Awards for his work with Henry Mancini, Steely Dan, George Benson, Toto, Natalie Cole, Quincy Jones, and others. He also won 2 Latin Grammys, and a Trustees Grammy for Lifetime Achievement. Biography Early career Schmitt grew up in New York City and lived in Brooklyn until the late 1940s. He bought his first 78 at the age of 10, Jimmie Lunceford's record "White Heat." Schmitt's favorite band was Jimmie Lunceford & His Orchestra. He had a younger sister, Doris, and two younger brothers, Richie and Russell, both of whom became audio engineers. His family was poor so some Saturdays he worked at a shop doing shoe repairs. On the weekends, Schmitt would spend time at his uncle's recording studio, Harry Smith Recording (Smith had changed his name from "Schmitt" to "Smith" because of the anti-German sentiment of the era). From the age of 8, Schmitt wou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arnold McCuller
Arnold McCuller (born August 26, 1950) is an American vocalist, songwriter, and record producer, born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. He was active as a solo artist and session musician, but is perhaps best known for his work as a touring back-up singer with artists such as James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt, Phil Collins, Beck, Bonnie Raitt, and Todd Rundgren. He toured for forty-five years with Taylor and is an audience favorite for his featured vocal parts on the songs "Shower the People", "I Will Follow", and "Is That the Way You Look". He has also toured extensively with Collins and is one of the main lead vocalists on the live version of "Easy Lover". In 2010 McCuller joined the Troubadour Reunion Tour supporting James Taylor and Carole King. Film McCuller has had numerous acting parts in films, particularly in movies centered on music, such as ''American Hot Wax'' (1978) and ''The Hollywood Knights'' (1980). He appeared in the film '' The Sum of All Fears'' singing "The Star-S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Lasley
David Eldon Lasley (August 20, 1947 – December 9, 2021) was an American recording artist, singer, musician and songwriter. He was best known as a touring background singer for James Taylor, as a session singer on recordings by artists including James Taylor, Bonnie Raitt, Luther Vandross, Chic (band), Chic, Aretha Franklin, Dionne Warwick, Bette Midler, Dusty Springfield and Boz Scaggs; as a songwriter for artists including Bonnie Raitt, Whitney Houston, Anita Baker, Maxine Nightingale, Rita Coolidge, Crystal Gayle, and Luther Vandross; and for his solo albums, albums with his 1970s vocal group Rosie, and for his early years in Detroit with his vocal group The Utopias. His best known songs include Maxine Nightingale's "Lead Me On (Maxine Nightingale song), Lead Me On" (co-written with Allee Willis), The Manhattan Transfer's "Shaker Song" (co-written with Willis and Jay Beckenstein), and Boz Scaggs' "Jojo (Boz Scaggs song), Jojo" (co-written with Scaggs and David Foster. In 1980, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jay Gruska
Jay Gruska (; born April 23, 1952) is an American songwriter and composer best known for his film and television scoring, and for writing hit songs for a variety of artists. He has composed musical scores for dozens of TV dramas, with over 500 hours of shows played internationally. Gruska has received three Emmy Award nominations, one Genie Award nomination, and nine ASCAP awards. Some of his best-known scores are for the TV shows '' Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman'', ''Charmed'', and ''Supernatural.'' Career Gruska started his career as a singer/songwriter. He was briefly a member of Three Dog Night in 1976, replacing Danny Hutton, until the group disbanded. He had recording contracts with ABC Records and Warner Bros. Records with the band Maxus, for which he was the lead singer and songwriter. Warner Bros. Records later released his solo album ''Which One of Us Is Me'', which Gruska also produced. Gruska is also known for co-writing the hit duet "Tell Me I'm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Donny Gerrard
Donald Bradford Gerrard (March 19, 1946 – February 3, 2022), known professionally as Donny Gerrard was a Canadian singer. He was a member of the band Skylark in the early 1970s, and in later years performed and recorded as a baritone backup singer for such artists as Mavis Staples. Early life Gerrard was born in Vancouver, Canada, on March 19, 1946. He began singing as a child and his talents became noticed when he was in high school. He and Al Foreman formed a group called "Donny Gerrard and the Checkmates" after the latter heard him sing at church community event in 1961. The band performed for three years before breaking up. He subsequently had a sojourn in Hawaii with another band, before coming back to Canada and reuniting with Foreman in Night Train Revue as its bassist for the next two years. Gerrard later relocated to the United States and started out performing in flash Vegas lounge acts. He was also part of a group that disbanded after Floyd Sneed became a memb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bill Champlin
William Bradford Champlin (born May 21, 1947) is an American singer, musician, arranger, producer, and songwriter. He formed the band Sons of Champlin in 1965, which still performs today, and was a member of the band Chicago from 1981–2009. He performed lead vocals on three of Chicago's biggest hits of the 1980s, 1984's " Hard Habit to Break" and 1988's "Look Away" and "I Don't Wanna Live Without Your Love". During live shows, he performed the lower, baritone, vocal parts originated by original guitarist Terry Kath, who had died in 1978. He has won multiple Grammy Awards for songwriting. Early career As a child, Champlin demonstrated a talent for piano and eventually picked up the guitar after being inspired by Elvis Presley. He started a band called The Opposite Six while at Tamalpais High School in Mill Valley, California. He then studied music in college, but was encouraged by a professor to drop out and pursue music professionally. The Sons of Champlin and solo career T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lenny Castro
Lenny or Lennie may refer to: People and fictional characters * Lenny (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Lennie (surname), a list of people * Lenny (singer) (born 1993), Czech songwriter Arts and entertainment Music * ''Lenny'' (album), by Lenny Kravitz * "Lenny" (instrumental), by Stevie Ray Vaughan * "Lenny" (Buggles song), a 1982 song by The Buggles * "Lenny" (Supergrass song), a 1995 song by Supergrass * Lenny, a guitar owned by Stevie Ray Vaughan * Leonard Bernstein, American conductor, pianist and composer Other arts and entertainment * Lenny (bot), an anti-telemarketing chatbot * ''Lenny'' (film), a 1974 biography of Lenny Bruce * "Lenny" (short story), a 1958 short story by author Isaac Asimov * ''Lenny'' (TV series), a 1990–1991 situation comedy starring Lenny Clarke * Lenny face (Internet emoticon), used to express sexual innuendo, or mischief Other uses * Hurricane Lenny, a 1999 hurricane in the Atlantic Ocean * Lenny's Sub Shop, a san ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jeff Porcaro
Jeffrey Thomas Porcaro (; April 1, 1954 – August 5, 1992) was an American drummer, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known for his work with the rock band Toto but is one of the most recorded session musicians in history, working on hundreds of albums and thousands of sessions. While already an established studio player in the 1970s, he came to prominence in the United States as the drummer on the Steely Dan album ''Katy Lied''. AllMusic has characterized him as "arguably the most highly regarded studio drummer in rock from the mid-'70s to the early '90s" and says that "it is no exaggeration to say that the sound of mainstream pop/rock drumming in the 1980s was, to a large extent, the sound of Jeff Porcaro." He was posthumously inducted into the ''Modern Drummer'' Hall of Fame in 1993. Early life Jeffrey Thomas Porcaro was born on April 1, 1954, in Hartford, Connecticut, the eldest son of Los Angeles session percussionist Joe Porcaro (1930–2020) and his wife, Eil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Popwell
Robert Lee "Pops" Popwell (December 29, 1950 – November 27, 2017) was an American jazz-funk bass guitarist and percussionist. Career Known as "Pops", he played with The Young Rascals, The Crusaders and the Macon Rhythm Section. The Young Rascals were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame May 6, 1997. They were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2005. He has played on albums by Aretha Franklin, George Benson, Ron Wood, Al Jarreau, Bobby Womack, Terry Bradds, Larry Carlton, Joe Sample, Smokey Robinson, Bette Midler, Gregg Allman, Bob Dylan, B. B. King, Les Dudek and Randy Crawford, among others. Most notably he played percussion on Aretha Franklin's Rock Steady. He has also toured with Bette Midler and Olivia Newton-John. Popwell appeared in the movie '' Hard to Hold'' with Rick Springfield. Featured in the 1982 ''Olivia Newton-John, Live'' concert video. Co-writer of "Boy Meets World" with Rap star Erick Sermon. Also wrote "Feelin Funky" on The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Abraham Laboriel
Abraham Laboriel López Sr. (born July 17, 1947) is a Mexican-American bassist who has played on over 4,000 recordings and soundtracks. ''Guitar Player'' magazine called him "the most widely used session bassist of our time". Laboriel is the father of drummer Abe Laboriel Jr. and of producer, songwriter, and film composer Mateo Laboriel. He is ranked No. 42 on ''Bass Player'' magazine's list of "The 100 Greatest Bass Players of All Time". Biography Laboriel was born in Mexico City. His brother was Mexican rock singer Johnny Laboriel, and his sister is Mexican singer, film and television actress Ella Laboriel. Their parents were Garifuna immigrants from Honduras. The family was devoutly Catholic. His father Juan José Laboriel started as a cab driver but in the 1920's became an integral part of the entertainment business in Mexico as a founding member of the actor's, musician's, composer's and film worker's associations, eventually becoming involved in over 200 films in va ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
