Jazz Articles about Leon Russell

Jesse Ed Davis: Tomorrow May Not Be Your Day: The Unissued Atco Recordings 1970-1971

by Doug Collette
July 9, 2025

Originally reissued in November 2024 as a limited-edition vinyl set, the seventy-four-some minutes of The Unissued Atco Recordings 1970-1971 derives from sessions for Jesse Ed Davis' debut LP Jesse Davis (Atco Records,1971) and its followup of a year later, Ululu (Atco Records, 1972). One of the most unheralded musicians of his time, Jesse Ed Davis' appearance is nevertheless virtually as recognizable as the tone of his guitar: the shock of black hair over his face brings focus to the close ...

Leon Russell: The Master of Space and Time's Journey Through Rock & Roll History

by Doug Collette
March 18, 2023

Leon Russell: The Master of Space and Time's Journey Through Rock & Roll History Bill Janovitz 592 Pages ISBN: #978-0306924774 Hachette Book Group 2023 A quick perusal of the late Leon Russell: The Master of Space And Time's Journey Through Rock & Roll History will most likely leave an indelible impression that the native Oklahoman was one of the most colorful characters ever to populate rock of the '60s and '70s. Bill Janovitz's ...

Leon Russell: Signature Songs

by Doug Collette
March 18, 2023

Originally released in 2001 and out-of-print since a 2007 re-release, Leon Russell's Signature Songs is now available again on compact disc and vinyl LP in tandem with a new distribution agreement for late Beatle George Harrison's label imprint, Dark Horse Records. A collection of eleven stripped-down takes on The Master of Space And Time's best-known songs, this is a singular entry in the list of over half-dozen similar 'best of' anthologies released since 1976. As nasal as ever ...

Leon Russell: On a Distant Shore

by C. Michael Bailey
October 22, 2017

In the same way that the death of my Aunt Irene in the early 1990s showed me Father Time was coming for my immediate family, did I realize the same fate awaited my musical heroes when Frank Zappa was shown the door about the same time. This past year has been especially hard with the deaths of Chuck Berry, Gregg Allman, and, now, Leon Russell. Russell was one of those artists who got old all at once. It is easier ...

Leon Russell and Southside Johnny &The Asbury Jukes at the NYCB Theatre

by Mike Perciaccante
August 24, 2013

Leon Russell, Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes with special guests The Persuasions NYCB Theatre at Westbury Westbury, NY July 27, 2013Rock 'N' Roll Hall of Fame member Leon Russell, as well as Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes, along with special guests The Persuasions, thrilled a small but enthusiastic audience at the intimate NYCB Theater in Westbury on July 27, 2013. The intimate venue, which on many concert occasions is used as a theater ...

Leon Russell: Signature Songs / Guitar Blues

by C. Michael Bailey
November 1, 2001

Leon Russell is an American National Treasure. He should be protected at all costs.

Leon Russell entered my consciousness when I saw the movie and later purchased the soundtrack for Joe Cocker's Mad Dogs and Englishmen. He was this larger-than-life figure, acting as sidekick to the great white Ray Charles. Russell had an immediately identifiable piano and guitar style, and his vocals, that voice, that could come from no one else but an Oklahoma Dust Bowl ghost. Born Claude Russell ...