Leon Russell dies

Another icon of my youth, Leon Russell, passed away at age 74. A piano player from Lawton, Oklahoma, Russell became a member of the “wrecking crew,” that set of session musicians who were responsible for most of the pop music coming out of L.A. in the early sixties, from the Beach Boys to the Mamas and the Papas and the Byrds. From there, he started playing with British stars, of the magnitude of John Lennon, George Harrison, Joe Cocker, and Eric Clapton. Also Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, and. . .you name it. The man knew everybody and his eclectic taste meant that he played just about everything.

He was also the main originator of the “Tulsa Sound,” with its country rock boogie-woogie shuffle that made a mark in the 1970s. I grew up in the Tulsa area around then, and Leon was part of that silly teenaged scene on local late night TV with Mazeppa Pompazoidi (Gaylord Sartain) and Teddy Jack Eddy (Gary Busey). I remember driving to Tulsa to hear a free concert in a park with Leon and B.B. King, one of the best concerts I’ve ever heard.

After the jump, a link to an informative obituary and a video of what he could do.

From ‘Master of Space and Time’ Leon Russell dies | News OK:

The list goes on and on: Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Doris Day, Johnny Mathis, Dean Martin, The Everly Brothers, Bobby Darrin, Jan and Dean, The Ronettes, Harry Nilsson.

Leon Russell played on all their albums, along with every Beach Boys record, including “Pet Sounds,” in addition to launching a successful solo career.

An influential Oklahoma-born singer, songwriter and session musician, Russell played on, produced, arranged and wrote some of the most famous and familiar rock ‘n’ roll songs of all time. He died in the early hours of Sunday at the age of 74. . . .

A pioneer of the influential Tulsa Sound, Russell seamlessly mixed genres like gospel, blues and country and sang with a loose style and distinctive gravelly voice.

The Tulsa Sound spread as its players moved west. Markham said Russell was one of the first in their circle of musical friends to move to Los Angeles, where he quickly built a reputation as a stellar sideman. . . .

In L.A., Russell became part of a group of studio musicians known as the Wrecking Crew, who helped Phil Spector develop his signature “Wall of Sound” and played on countless pop albums of the 1960s. The pianist contributed to many of the decade’s top singles, including the Righteous Brothers’ “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’,” the Byrds’ “Mr. Tambourine Man” and Gary Lewis & the Playboys’ “This Diamond Ring.” It was during his time with the Wrecking Crew that Russell began writing songs.

“We’d play tracks and have chord sheets. Sometimes we’d play the tracks 10 times before we heard the melody or singer. Just out of boredom, I wrote songs to those tracks as they were going by,” he said in documentary “The Wrecking Crew!”

After Joe Cocker scored a 1969 hit with Russell’s “Delta Lady,” the Oklahoma native became ringmaster of Cocker’s legendary “Mad Dogs & Englishmen” tour, developing a mystical stage persona as “The Master of Space and Time.”

Russell also started his own label, Shelter Records, with offices in L.A. and Tulsa, releasing his self-titled solo debut — on which John Lennon, Ringo Starr and George Harrison all played — and launching the career of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

In 1971, “Leon Russell & the Shelter People” became his first gold album, and the following year, “Carney” held the No. 2 position on Billboard’s album chart for a month and produced his highest-charting single, “Tight Rope,” which peaked at No. 11. He played with George Harrison and Friends at the Concert for Bangladesh, the pioneering 1971 benefit that was chronicled with an album and concert film, and won a Grammy for his performance.

“One reason we all have trouble with describing Leon’s influence is the breadth of his experience. He wasn’t just a great songwriter; he wasn’t just a good recording artist. He did it all,” said Oklahoma Historical Society Executive Director Bob Blackburn, noting that the planned Oklahoma Museum of Popular Culture in Tulsa, due to open in 2019, will showcase a vast collection of Russell memorabilia.

“To me, he’s a little bit like Woody Guthrie. … Leon was a poet with his lyrics, but whether it was ballads or just straight-up rock ‘n’ roll, he was putting with it this incredible music that was layered. And he never quit experimenting. He was never that worried about what was commercial, what would sell.”

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