MUSIC COLUMN: Influence of Leon Russell
(WorldNews Music)

We recently attended a benefit show at the old Will Rogers High School in Tulsa, which included the dedication of a 1938 Baldwin grand piano that Leon Russell had spent so much time playing back during his high school days. T he show, emceed by OMHOF inductee John Wooley, included tribute performances to Leon by a local all-star band headed up by Paul Benjaman. It was my first time to ever experience any event in the WRHS auditorium, but I was immediately awestruck by the art deco design and the thoughts of the talent that had graced that very stage since it opened in 1938. The sold-out crowd obviously included many alums from the same era as Leon, who graduated from Will Rogers in 1959....