An influential session musician and a key figure in popularising funk, keyboard
maestro Billy Preston is probably best remembered for his close musical
partnership with late-period Beatles. A Texan by birth but mostly raised in Los
Angeles, Preston started playing piano at the age of three and was regarded as a
child prodigy, performing with great gospel artists like Mahalia Jackson and
Andrae Crouch before he was in his teens. In 1958 he starred as blues legend
W.C.Handy in the movie St Louis Blues and played keyboards with Little Richard,
Ray Charles and Sam Cooke, making his f...