Rodney Franklin was born September 1958 in Berkeley, California. At six years old, he was learning jazz piano at Washington Elementary School. His school administrator was Dr Herb Wong. He is a jazz journalist, DJ, and teacher. Before signing with CBS in 1978 Rodney had worked extensively in San Francisco with John Handy and toured with Marlena Shaw, Freddle Hubbard, and Bill Summers. In The Center, his debut CBS Columbia album, was released in 1978. It featured lushly orchestrated fusion music (not released in the U.K.). 1980’s ‘You’ll Never Know’ was a hit with the UK Top 10, and even created a short UK dance craze called ‘The Freeze’, which was initiated by Chris Hill, a Lacy Lady disc jockey. The album featured Paul Jackson Jr. and Phyllis St. James. Other CBS albums he released were: Rodney Franklin’ in 1980, which was an album that featured reworked tracks from 1978’s release; Endless Flight’ in 1981, which featured ‘Hill St. Blues, u0026 Dance Tonight’ and the title song);?Marathon’ (1984, produced Stanley Clarke and featuring ’Stay on In The Groove’ and ‘Love Is The Answer’); ‘Skydance’ (1985, with lead vocals and the single titled’and the instrumental a Give It Up’. Rodney also released “Love Dancin” for Nova. A ‘Best Of’ retrospective of Rodney’s work was released by Sony in 2002. from www.soulwalking.co.uk
