Rufus is a band that has a very colorful history and very colorful music.Of course they one thing they are (begrudgeingly) known for is as a launching pad for justly renowned diva Chaka Khan.It is also believed it is because of her absense that the band broke up after a ten year recording career.They band actually began when keyboard player Kevin Murphy joined up with the pop band American Breed (who had one hit in "Bend Me,Shape Me") before metamorphosizing into more of a funky country-rock boogie band including new members Ron Stockheart,Al Ciner,Andre Fischer and the singer Paulette McWilliams-changing their name to Ask Rufus after an cololm in 'Popular Mechanics' magazine.They performed for a few years at Nero's Pit in Chicago during the early 70's where Paulette decided to go solo,suggesting her friend Chaka Khan succeed her.The combination worked out well.
One thing led to another and in 1971 the band,now calling themselves plain Rufus were signed to ABC records and recorded their first self titled album in 1973.They again headed out on the road and their acclaim made a strong impression Stevie Wonder who,after hearing the bands cover of his "Maybe Your Baby" wrote "Tell Me Something Good" for Chaka Khan's voice (she wrote the lyrics) after finding out that "she was an Aries";the original song he'd composed for Rufus hadn't impressed the band members upon hearing it.When the bands second album 'Rags To Rufus' broke out and was a huge success Al Ciner and Ron Stockheart left Rufus when Chaka Khan's name was attached to that of the bands.The group then solidified it's main lineup by recruiting guitarist and singer Tony Maidan,bassist Bobby Watson and Nate Morgen (who only last less then a year with Rufus) for their third album 'Rufusized'.
Rufus toured to sell out crowd throughout the mid 70's and released acclaimed albums such as 'Rufus Featuring Chaka Khan','Ask Rufus' and 'Street Player'-blending jazzy,catchy funk and jazz/rock styles with Chaka's adaptable,one of a kind singing.Sadly as the 70's drew to a close Rufus's career began to become cheapened with scandals:drummer Andre Fischer exchanged fisticuffs with Chaka and her husband Richard and was ousted from Rufus,while Chaka's ongoing substance abuse issues and her need to record solo albums resulted in three highly underrated albums made by Rufus without Chaka's involvement (1979's 'Numbers',1980's 'Party Til Your Broke' and 1983's 'Seal In Red' to be exact).
Chaka returned to the band in the early 80's to fullfill her obligations to the group before formerly reuniteing with them one more time for the 1982 concert at the Savvoy-the album of which included the bands last hit with Chaka,the wonderful "Ain't Nobody".About five years ago Rufus made a comeback concert with Chaka Khan that went extremely well.Sadly enough many of this bands recordings,both with and without Chaka Khan are unavailable and the ones that are are steadily being placed out of print on CD.For whatever reason Rufus are a band that I feel never truely received their props collectively and I dedicate this group to them.