Taking their hats off to Leon

The late rock piano pioneer is saluted in a book and album with a Kiwi connection. 

- GRAHAM REID

When Leon Russell was helped on to Auckland's Powerstation stage in April 2011, he was 69, overweight and walked with a cane. It didn't look promising. But Russell made his career sitting down, and once at the electric piano, the magic flew. His most familiar songs - snatches of the Beatles, Dylan and the Stones, blues, Southern soul and gospel; his encore (without leaving the stage) of late 50s rock'n'roll hits weren't just a crowd-pleasing gesture. Russell had played on many of them.

Raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Russell soaked up musical influences from the church, jazz and emerging rock'n'roll. When his band opened for Jerry Lee Lewis, the star said half in jest, "He plays better than I do."

Russell moved to Los Angeles, joined the Wrecking Crew studio musicians, played on dozens of Phil Spector recordings and did sessions for Willie Nelson, Pat Boone, Herb Alpert (a great supporter), Julie London, Aretha Franklin and Frank Sinatra. "The thing I remember the most," he told this writer of the Sinatra sessions, "[was] the incredible number of policemen around. I wasn't quite used to that. Can't remember what we played, though."