Musical Excellence Award RecipientLeon Russell has been called a rock and roll Renaissance man, and indeed there is little that this piano-playing legend from Oklahoma hasn't done. He was a busy session musician in Los Angeles in the 1960s, playing on countless records, including many of Phil Spector's greatest productions and hits by the Byrds, Paul Revere and the Raiders and Gary Lewis and the Playboys, as well as George Harrison's Concert for Bangladesh benefit in 1971. His churchy, rolling piano figures and sly, drawling vocals pegged him as a unique stylist, and his evangelical outpouring of energy from the ...