PATRICK LEONARD
Patrick Leonard (born March 14, 1956) is an American songwriter, keyboardist and music producer of French-Canadian descent. He gained his entry into the music business with late 1970’s Chicago-based pomp rock band Trillion, which also featured future Toto singer Dennis “Fergie” Frederiksen on lead vocals. He is best known for his longtime collaboration with Madonna on many different projects including her albums True Blue (1986), Who’s That Girl (1987), Like a Prayer (1989), I’m Breathless (1990), and Ray of Light (1998). Leonard has worked with a wide variety of artists, including late-period Pink Floyd and solo Roger Waters and David Gilmour, as well as Boz Scaggs, Ilse DeLange, Deborah Blando, Peter Cetera, Bryan Ferry, Michael W. Smith, Julian Lennon, Elton John, Anna Vissi, Jody Watley, Rod Stewart, Leonard Cohen, Bryan Adams, Jewel, Blue October, and up and coming artist Rachel Loy. (More from Wikipedia)
The post on Trillion in particular was long because this band is/was chock-full of extremely talented musicians that included Patrick Leonard, one of the major forces behind Madonna’s incredible musical career – and that was just the beginning. In my mind, this band is second only to Wendy Waldman as the most unexpected absence from having a Wikipedia article (the sole criterion I have for marking Under-Appreciated status). The only reason that it wasn’t even longer is that I had already discussed guitarist Frank Barbalace as a member of previous UARB Wild Blue.
(Year 3 Review)
