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PrintLeon: Mastering space and time
A look at the life and career of a rock ’n’ roll legend.
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While the stories surrounding Leon Russell’s return to Tulsa are shrouded in myth and legend, the facts of his early life in Oklahoma are a bit clearer.
Born in Lawton, Okla., in 1942, Claude Russell Bridges began playing piano at age 3 and was quickly recognized as a prodigy. Trained in the classics, he moved to Tulsa in time to catch the first waves of rock ’n’ roll music sweeping the city. By age 14, he was playing in nightclubs.
An early band called the Starlighters featured a saxophone player named Johnny Williams with Russell on piano, John (later “JJ”) Cale on guitar and Chuck Blackwell on drums. The band performed at private parties and dances and at nightclubs such as the House of Blue Lights and the Pla-Mor Ballroom. As house band at the Cain’s Ballroom one night, the musicians so impressed Jerry Lee Lewis that he adopted them as his backing band for his tours.
Upon graduation from Rogers High School in 1959, Russell was part of a major migration of Tulsa musicians to Los Angeles that included Jimmy Markham; guitarists Cale, Tommy Tripplehorn and Tommy Crook; drummers Blackwell and Jimmy Karstein; bass players Bill Raffensperger and Carl Radle; and recording artist David Gates.
Russell rose quickly among the ranks of the L.A. session players and arrangers. He was soon an integral part of the Phil Spector recording team known for creating Spector’s famous “Wall of Sound” and was part of an equally elite group of L.A. studio musicians known as the “Wrecking Crew,” which featured a young Glen Campbell on guitar.
Between these two affiliations and various others, Russell was soon a key player on some of the most important records of the day. Songs that Russell produced and/or played on include “Mr. Tambourine Man” by The Byrds, “California Girls” by The Beach Boys, “This Diamond Ring” by Gary Lewis and the Playboys and “When I Paint My Masterpiece” by Bob Dylan, just to name a few.
In general, Russell was on hand to witness and take part in the musical revolution that perfected the bebop and basic rock ’n’ roll music by the likes of the Shondells and Jerry Lee Lewis and then refined it into strains as varied as The Beach Boys’ harmonized surf music and The Byrds’ earliest experiments with integrating folk and country into rock.
All this session playing and arranging set the stage for Russell’s emergence as one of the great pioneers of the modern rock sound that has existed in various forms ever since. Through his work with a seminal R&B/rock group called Delaney & Bonnie & Friends and a blue-collar British blues singer by the name of Joe Cocker, Russell forged a signature sound and live band format that raised the bar overnight for rock recording and live performance.
Russell’s role as bandleader, arranger and piano and guitar player on Cocker’s legendary “Mad Dogs and Englishmen” tour in 1970 solidified Russell’s place in rock history.
The massive U.S. tour, live double album and seminal rock movie will have a hallowed place in rock lore for the ages. Having personally assembled the 20-member musical troupe and created all the subtle but complex arrangements, Russell’s fingerprints are on every note.
