Record Deals Dry Up, But Music Never Stops : Former hit-maker Patrice Rushen says her versatility has kept her busy with the likes of Prince, George Howard and Jean-Luc Ponty

She entered the professional arena as a jazz pianist who could raise a room’s temperature with the best of them, but it was as a contemporary R&B; songwriter/singer/keyboardist that most people first heard of Patrice Rushen.

After three jazz LPs for Fantasy Records in the mid-to-late ‘70s, Rushen, 35, moved to Elektra Records and had six solid-selling releases, topped by 1982’s “Straight From the Heart.” The LP sold half a million copies, made it to No. 1 on the Billboard R&B; charts (and No. 23 on the pop charts) and was nominated for two Grammys: Best R&B; Instrumental and Best R&B; vocal.

It’s been two years since her last LP--”Watch Out!” (Arista)--and seven years since her biggest hit single--”Forget Me Nots,” off “Straight From the Heart.”

Despite the lull in her recording career, Rushen is not about to blow her cool.

“Sure, I’d like to have another hit record, but fortunately my existence doesn’t begin and end with the records,” she said while eating fresh fruit at a Studio City deli. “I have sufficient skills that I can do a lot of things that keep me involved with music.”

In the five years since Rushen last headed a tour under her own name, she has worked steadily. She has made records with violinist Jean-Luc Ponty, singer Dianne Reeves and sax man George Howard, taught clinics at colleges and appeared with bands ranging from the Meeting--a quartet that includes sax man Ernie Watts, bassist Alphonso Johnson and drummer Ndugu Chancler--to a Carlos Santana/Wayne Shorter all-star crew that played European festivals in the summer of 1987. She’s also played music with, and written string arrangements for, Prince, served as a musical consultant for the ABC miniseries “The Women of Brewster Place,” and has been musical director of all of Robert Townsend’s HBO Comedy specials, as well as his feature film “Hollywood Shuffle.”

“I’m as busy as I want to be . . . almost,” she said. “I’ve always liked having the kind of career where I’m able to shift from one thing to another. It keeps it from becoming a grind. If you want to work in music, especially out here, versatility helps you have stuff to do consistently.”

As active as she has been, Rushen admits that she missed playing in public, a situation she’s rectified by forming One + 1, a duo band with longtime associate Chancler, who plays drums, vibes and various percussion. The pair will perform at the Room Upstairs at Le Cafe in Sherman Oaks, Thursday through Saturday.

“One of the things that seems to happen when you have the ‘success’ as an artist is that you become removed from what got you started in the first place, which is making music, for people as well as for yourself,” Rushen said. “On a tour, everything is a big production, from the lighting to the sound, getting the band together. It’s great, but if you want to just play, it can be hard.”

Chancler, who has played with Rushen since they were in the music program at Locke High School in Los Angeles in the early ‘70s, suggested that they form a band after the 1987 Santana tour, on which he also played. “I was playing electronic keyboards which, through modern technology, can also be made to sound acoustic, and Ndugu saw how much could be done in that context, so he came up with the idea of the group,” Rushen said. “And because it’s just two people we can easily get together.”

When they appear, as they did at Marla’s Memory Lane on a recent Friday and Saturday, Rushen and Chancler fill the stage with equipment--from keyboards and speakers to vibes and timbales. Their show is a rousing series of interactions, most of which are bolstered by a thumping funk beat that Chancler, who has worked with Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock and Weather Report, either plays live or through a program that plays prerecorded drum parts electronically.

“We’re using new technology but fusing it with the old concept of just getting out there and digging in,” Rushen said. “I get to play and sing, he gets to play vibes and drums. From a musical perspective, we can go from A to Z and back. I have played with Sonny Rollins and Prince, he’s played with Michael Jackson and Miles, so we’re really diverse.

“And you can actually see the people you’re playing for,” she added. “In a lot of concert halls, the first row is 100 feet away.”

Rushen says music has always been part of her life. Her preschool teacher--Mary Clay of the Mary Clay Pre-School in Los Angeles--informed Rushen’s parents about USC’s Preparatory Program (it became The Community School of the Performing Arts in the late ‘70s and, since 1987, has been known as the Colburn School of Music), where Rushen began studies at age 3. “The class was called ‘Eurythmics,’ which was specially designed for children and introduced them to the fundamentals of music,” she said. “It was an American adaptation of the Japanese Suzuki method. Then at 5, I was introduced to an instrument, which, at my parents’ suggestion--something like, ‘Wouldn’t you like to play the piano?’--was the piano.”

For the next 13 years, Rushen studied piano at USC, first with Earl Hultberg, then Dorothy Bishop--founder of the Preparatory Program and teacher of such notables as Michael Tilson Thomas--and finally Carol Stewart. “They all three had different styles, but they had the same concept, which was, ‘Whatever you’re doing, communicate through the music you’re making. . . . Don’t just get out there and play the notes,’ “Rushen said.

Rushen graduated from USC in 1977 with a degree in music education. Before that, she spent an influential four years at Locke High School, where the music curriculum--headed by ex-Willie Bobo bassist Reggie Andrews--helped shape her career.

“It was an intense environment that was very helpful to those who felt they really wanted to be professionals,” she said. “Many of the standouts, such as Ndugu, saxophonists Gerald Albright and Gary Bias and trumpeter Ray Brown, have gone on to establish careers in music.

“We would play difficult music, music sent to us by Thad Jones, Quincy Jones and Gerald Wilson. The idea was this was the caliber of music you have to play when you get out there.”

The program stressed versatility. “We were told that everybody’s not going to be a bandleader, everybody’s not going to get a record deal, so what do you want to do? There are jobs for copyists, arrangers and managers if you want to be in music. There are a lot of other related careers, so if it turns out I’m not the greatest, there are possibilities.”

Rushen said she would like to have another record deal but reiterated that hit records aren’t the be-all and end-all of her musical life. “I have had good instruction and have had the room to be myself, and nobody can take that away whether I have a hit record or not. What’s more important to me is my piece of mind and the opportunity as an artist to project what it is that I do and to learn through my art.”