Anything But Ordinary

by Alex HendersonIn the late 1970s and early to mid-'80s, Patrice Rushen was red hot. Anyone who was seriously into R&B at the time remembers hits like "Haven't You Heard," "Forget-Me-Nots" and "Never Gonna Give You Up." But by the end of the 1980s, the jazz pianist turned R&B singer was in trouble commercially. Switching from Elektra to Arista with 1987's Watch Out! proved to be a mistake, and it wasn't until 1994's Anything But Ordinary on the small Sin-Drome label that Rushen recorded again under her own name. Though this CD isn't in a class with Pizzazz or Posh, sleek R&B/pop tunes like "I Do," "My Heart, Your Heart" and "Tell Me" showed that the L.A. native could still hold her own as a singer, composer and producer. Rushen experiments with hip-hop influences on a few selections, but on the whole, the disc is quite similar to her Elektra output. While Anything didn't return Rushen to the top of the R&B charts, her more devoted fans were glad to see her back in the studio.