Bernard Wright

Bernard Wright bridged and blurred numerous genres throughout a career that encompassed jazz, R&B, hip-hop, contemporary gospel, and reggae, but he was known most for jazz-funk, what he viewed as a hybrid of two equally valid art forms. Taken under the wings of fellow Jamaica, Queens natives Weldon Irvine, Don Blackman, and Lenny White, Wright was a seasoned touring keyboardist and session musician -- and had played on Tom Browne's number one R&B smash "Funkin' for Jamaica (N.Y.)" -- by the time he debuted as a teenaged leader with 'Nard (1981). After his second album, Funky B...