The Ledge - RIP Leon Russell

Leon's passing hit me hard. He's the main reason I'm still playing piano today.

My mom started me on classical piano lessons when I was 7. After about 4 years of lessons, I just didn't want to play anymore, I wanted to play GUITAR! (since Rock & Roll WAS guitar-driven) Piano was the uncoolest thing ever...until I heard Leon Russell somewhere around 1970. He made playing piano cooler than cool. I found a songbook of his tunes and learned every one in the book. I bought each album of his as they came out. (however had to backtrack for the 2 Asylum Choir AND Joe Cocker's Mad Dogs & Englishmen). Had I not come down with the flu when he played the Long Beach Arena and missed the concert, I would've been in the crowd on his "Leon Live" album.

Around '78 or '79 (don't remember EXACTLY which), my cousin and her first husband (Gregg; who was a recording engineer at a studio in Boston) came out to California for their honeymoon/"meet the family tour". Gregg brought 4 boxes of big 2" tape reels that Leon had left behind when he'd stopped to record at the studio where Gregg worked during a tour. My cousin, Gregg & I drove up to Warner Bros offices with the reels of tape to give them back to Leon. My cousin & I waited in the car while Gregg went into the building...while we were waiting, who should walk by the car & stroll into the office building? None other than Mick Fleetwood!!! Most likely passing in the doorway, Gregg came out just as Mick went in...with Gregg was Dino Airali, Leon's then manager. They both pile in the car and Dino starts giving me directions to drive. After about 20 minutes of winding our way through the San Fernando Valley, he tells me to pull into the driveway...a HUGE driveway...one that was about the size of a mini-mall parking lot. In the driveway was an 18-wheeler with guys rolling road cases up the ramp into the truck. My cousin asked Dino, "whose house is this?"...."It's Leon's" he replied. I about pissed in my pants. We got out of the car and Dino escorted us around the side of the MANSION that was the main house to an equally large "guest house" in the back. Well, this "guest house" had been turned into a 3-story recording studio. The top level was decked out like an arcade with pinball machines, air hockey & pool tables. We go downstairs into what seemed like "NASA Mission Control"..a huge 48 channel mixing board & floor to ceiling speakers and outboard gear. Through the window was a 9 ft concert grand piano (Steinway of course). I asked if I could play it, Dino said "sure". So I started into a few of the Leon Russell songs I knew. He whipped his head around (nearly giving himself whiplash) and said, "you ARE a Leon fan, I see". On the other side of the studio was a humidified closet of all of Leon's stored recording tapes, where the tapes that Gregg brought would be stored for posterity. I asked if Leon was around, Dino said that he'd been up until about 3am recording and was still asleep inside the main house. We then went back out, got in the car & took Dino back to the Warner Bros offices...where he gifted me with three of the latest Leon albums I had yet to purchase. And, then Gregg, my cousin & I were on our way back home. I finally got to see Leon in concert for the first time in '89 when he toured with Edgar Winter....and the last time I saw him was at the Belly Up Tavern near San Diego about 4 years ago. His tour bus was parked right outside, I was hoping to get a chance to talk to him, but alas no.

RIP Claude Russell Bridges...thanks for all the continued inspiration and great music!