Sing On Leon: Leon Russell plays Hermosa Beach
Leon Russell plays Saint Rocke Sunday. You’re on stage in front of thousands of people. You’re up there with Eric Clapton, Billy Preston, Jesse Ed Davis, and Klaus Voormann, to name a few. Bob Dylan’s taken stage, and, even though you shine behind the piano, you take bass. On the other side are two Beatles: George Harrison on guitar, Ringo Starr on tambourine. When Dylan hits those familiar choruses of “Just Like A Woman,” you and Harrison lean in for the backup vocals; and you must be thinking, “Yeah, I’m pretty bad ass right now.” This is just one memory, from George Harrison’s 1971 Concert For Bangladesh, that the legendary Leon Russell might choose to share if he did interviews. Russell’s stature as a solo artist was just beginning to take off at this point in his career, but the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer has played with more stars than are twinkling in the night sky. A naturally prolific artist, as early as the mid-to-late ’50s he and his band The Starlighters (which included J.J. Cale) were busy creating a style of music known as the Tulsa Sound. Leaving Oklahoma behind for Los Angeles, throughout the mid-to-late ‘60s he’d become a renowned (multi-instrumentalist) session…
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