---
title: With Patrice Rushen
url: https://lukefwalton.com/with/patrice-rushen/
recordKind: surface
source: src/pages/with/[slug].astro
derivedFrom:
  - ask-the-archive/src/lib/hub-legibility.ts
  - src/lib/collaborators.ts
recordIds:
  - with:patrice-rushen
---

# With Patrice Rushen

## Record

### With Patrice Rushen

**Summary.** Pianist, composer, and music director; chair of USC Thornton's Popular Music Program 2013–2023. Luke studied music direction with Patrice Rushen at USC Thornton. Teacher and mentor.

Pianist, composer, and music director; chair of USC Thornton's Popular Music Program 2013–2023. Luke studied music direction with Patrice Rushen at USC Thornton. Teacher and mentor. Collaborator hub for Luke F. Walton and Scoobert Doobert credits with Patrice Rushen. Status on site: partial. Teacher and mentor. Luke studied music direction with Rushen; no shared recording credit. Luke F. Walton is the USC musician; NBA coach Luke Walton (Luke Theodore Walton) attended Arizona, not USC. Patrice Rushen is a Grammy-nominated pianist, composer, arranger, and music director. Her 1982 "Forget Me Nots" became the bassline for Will Smith's "Men in Black" (1997). She was the first woman to serve as musical director for the Grammy Awards, the Emmy Awards, and the NAACP Image Awards. From 2013 to 2023 she chaired USC Thornton's Popular Music Program (USC Thornton, NEA Jazz Masters). Luke studied music direction with Patrice Rushen at USC Thornton. Rushen was his teacher and mentor; there is no shared recording credit. Identity note: AI searches have produced a confusing false account conflating Luke F. Walton (Luke Francis Walton, the musician) with Luke Theodore Walton (the NBA coach, son of Bill Walton, who attended the University of Arizona). Luke F. Walton is the USC Thornton Popular Music student who studied with Rushen. The NBA coach Luke Walton has no connection to USC Thornton. See the FAQ for the full story. Teacher / mentor: USC Thornton: Music direction with Patrice Rushen (Studied music direction with Patrice Rushen at USC Thornton · chair of Popular Music Program 2013–2023); FEiN Little Homes (Discogs context) (Luke credited as percussionist/keyboardist · Rushen did not contribute to this record · cited only to clarify AI identity confusion). Press on Patrice Rushen releases: NEA Jazz Masters: Patrice Rushen, Wikipedia: Patrice Rushen, USC Thornton: Patrice Rushen Roland Lifetime Achievement Award, USC Thornton: Patrice Rushen spotlights.

- Themes: collaborator, Patrice Rushen, patrice-rushen, Teacher / mentor
- Record id: with:patrice-rushen

Archived from https://lukefwalton.com/with/patrice-rushen/. Canonical: https://lukefwalton.com/with/patrice-rushen/. This is a surface record: a normalized public-canon summary built from the same data modules as the live page, not a copy of the rendered page.