What was it like to work with Glen Campbell and Leon Russell?
A. As you all know, Glen was a fabulous guitar player – still is, long before he ever sang on his own hit records, and he was an excellent studio musician. Leon also, they were very unique in what they could create with in the way of sounds, soloings, funky licks and especially w/Leon, his left-handed gospel lines on the keyboards. They were both witty, very different tho’, Glen being more outgoing, telling jokes, etc. and Leon kind of quiet, throwing in some great 1-liners here and there (he did stand up and do some “preaching” tho’ one time). Most of us being from years of big-band, jazz combo work, etc., this was an unusual mixture of highly creative people who at first made up arrangements in the late 50s and early 60s either having bare-bones arrangements (maybe even just chord charts or none too), or being hired because we could augment someone’s chart to turn the tune/singer/production into a hit record. Producers knew as soon as key people like Glen or Leon (and a few others) w
