Terry Burrus

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Terry Burrus is an American musician and designer from Brooklyn, New York. He plays keyboards, writes music, and works as a producer, conductor, DJ, and bandleader. His work spans pop, rock, R&B, electro, house, and soul. He also runs businesses in real estate and fashion.

Burrus started touring as a teenager, playing with jazz fusion violinist Michał Urbaniak and singer Jean Carne. He joined Carne after replacing Urbaniak’s longtime keyboardist. Through mentor Norman Hedman, he later played with trumpeter Tom Browne, drummer Lenny White, and singer Melba Moore. A friend recommended him to Lena Horne, and in 1984 he performed in Horne’s award-winning show Lady and Her Music.

In 1983, Burrus released his first solo single, Love Rocking, as Terry Burrus and Transe. He produced it with Marcus Miller and performed all the parts himself, with Omar Hakim on drums.

Over the years Burrus became a sought-after session musician. He played on records for Michael Jackson, Toni Braxton, Janet Jackson, Mariah Carey, Madonna, Aretha Franklin, Diana Ross, Miles Davis, Gloria Estefan, Phyllis Hyman, and many others. He also helped shape house and electronic music, working with Frankie Knuckles, David Morales, Satoshi Tomiie, and Todd Terry, among others.

Music is not Burrus’s only focus. He loves classical music and often performs classical piano recitals around the world. He studied at LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and later at Long Island University.

Burrus has written and produced songs for various artists. He created tracks for Phyllis Hyman with Kenny Gamble, including Living In Confusion and Forever With You. He wrote I Just Love You So Much for Billy Paul and Love Goddess for Lonnie Liston Smith, as well as I’ll Wait for You and The One And Only Lady In My Life for the Burrell group.

He credits his junior high music teacher, Sticks Evans, for encouraging him. Burrus’s early life included growing up in a church family; his mother Carter Lee and father James sang in the choir. In the late 1980s he moved to a mid-Manhattan apartment near where Evans lived, a place he regarded fondly.