IN 1968, A CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED ALBUM, ASYLUM CHOIR WAS RELEASED but met with poor sales.
That didn’t deter either of the two musicians who created the album concept and made all of the music on it. The Asylum Choir, Leon Russell and Marc Benno, is no longer together, but individually they’re making some fine music.
Benno has released two albums for A & M Records and Russell owns his own label and studio, Shelter Records. Leon was born in Oklahoma and started playing piano (both his parents played the instrument) at the tender age of three.
He studied classical piano for ten years, but when he began high school, he decided to give it up. “I didn’t really have the hands for classical stuff,” he said, “and my teachers discouraged me from making up my own music.”
Leon took up trumpet and at fourteen had his own band, lying about his age to get work in Tulsa nightclubs. Among the musicians who sat in with him were Ronnie Hawkins and Jerry Lee Lewis.
At seventeen, Russell moved to L.A. “I wasn’t even supposed to be out at night in Los Angeles, let alone working in clubs,” he said. “I’d borrow a friend’s ID to get a job, then I’d return the card and work until I was stopped by the police for being under-age and out after curfew.
Within a few years, Leon was one of the most sought-after studio musicians in L.A. After five years of studio work, he built his own recording studio in his home in the Hollywood Hills. It was there that he and Marc Benno recorded two Asylum Choir LPs, the first released on the Smash label and the second on Shelter.
In 1969, Russell joined forces with Delaney and Bonnie which led to his meeting English producer Denny Cordell. Cordell introduced Leon to Joe Cocker and a musical alliance was soon formed.
Russell was given the job of putting together the musicians and the music for Cocker’s Mad Dogs and Englishmen tour. Out of the assignment came a highly successful tour, a movie, an album, and the Russell penned song “Delta Lady.”
Since that time, Leon has recorded three albums of his own for Shelter, playing guitar, piano, and drums. He was also a featured performer at the now historic “Concert for Bangladesh.”
Leon now lives in Oklahoma on a sprawling farm complete with its own lake. On the farm is also a new recording studio (where half of his latest album, Carney, was recorded) and houses for visiting friends and musicians.