Search - Leon Russell :: The Homewood Sessions

THE CLASSIC 1970 TV SPECIAL THAT MADE A STAR OF LEON RUSSELL Born in Lawton, Oklahoma in 1942, Leon Russell began playing piano at the age of four. He attended Will Rogers High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma and by age 16 was already performing at Tulsa nightclubs. After moving to Los Angeles, he became a session musician, working as a pianist on the recordings of many notable musical artists from the 1960s. By the late 1960s, Russell diversified, becoming successful as an arranger and songwriter. As a musician, he worked his way up from gigs as a sideman to working with well-known performers. By 1970, he had graduated to a solo recording artist, although he never ended his previous roles within the music industry. After performing country music under the name Hank Wilson in the 1970s and 1980s, Russell had largely faded into obscurity. He re-emerged in 2010 when Elton John called on him to record an album that became The Union. The album brought renewed popularity to Russell who has since released a solo album and toured around the world. In December 1970 'Leon Russell and friends' recorded the 'Homewood Sessions' at the Vine Street Theatre in Hollywood, broadcast as an 'unscripted and unrehearsed' one-hour TV special on KCET TV (Los Angeles) and later re-broadcast several times on the Public Broadcasting System. The Vine Street Theatre had a little studio in the back part of the building where the recording was made. They actually shot six hours but only broadcast one. Claimed to be the first national broadcast of a stereo rock and roll performance, this would have required an FM simulcast, since American television was not stereo in 1970s. An extended line-up features, including: Don Nix, Claudia Linnear, Kathi McDonald, Chuck Blackwell, Jim Horn, John Gallie, Furry Lewis, Don Preston, Joey Cooper, Carl Radle and Emily - Furry Lewis is the same Furry that Joni Mitchell later wrote a song about (Furry Sings The Blues). The second part of this CD features Leon with his band of the time, The Shelter People, performing in Holland a few months later in February 1971. With both performances providing an excellent illustration of Russell s live work at this early juncture in his solo career, the time could not be better for a release of this nature to co-inside somewhat with the great man s well deserved renewed popularity.