Bernard Purdie

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Bernard "Pretty" Purdie (born June 11, 1939 in Elkton , Maryland ), also called "Mississippi Bigfoot", is an American drummer and session musician who has worked with various world-famous soul , rock , pop and jazz musicians Has. According to his own statements, he played with 2500 musicians and can be heard on more than 4,000 recordings. That would make him the most recorded drummer in the world.

Live and act

Purdie made his first appearance at the age of 11. He moved to New York City in 1960 and began playing with Lonnie Youngblood before joining King Curtis ; Albert Ayler brought him in 1968 to record his ensemble. In 1970 he worked for Aretha Franklin and was their musical director for five years . He also toured with trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and saxophonist Hank Crawford, and played with Max Roach and Miles Davis ( Get Up with It , 1974).

Purdie is considered an influential and innovative representative of funk and is known for a "rolling" shuffle beat , which he calls the Purdie shuffle . Two examples can be heard on Steely Dan 's Home at Last and Babylon Sisters . He is also considered one of the inventors of the acid jazz genre. Colleagues described his style as the funkiest soul beat in the music business. He played the soundtrack to the first African American porn film called Lialeh from 1974.

In 2016 Rolling Stone listed him as 20th of the 100 best drummers of all time .

Musicians and groups Purdie has played with

(Selection)

Selected discography

As a leader

  • Soul Drums (1968)
  • Soul Fingers (1968)
  • Purdie Good (1971)
  • Soul Is ... Pretty Purdie (1972)
  • Lialeh (1974)
  • Master Drummers Vol.1 (1994)
  • Master Drummers Vol.2 (1996)
  • Get It While You Can (1999)

Also to listen to

Trivia

For the Bee Gees hit Stayin 'Alive , two bars of the already recorded song Night Fever were recorded one after the other on a tape ("looped") and used for Stayin' Alive . The Bee Gees named "Bernard Lupé" as the drummer, a "French" allusion to Bernard Purdie. Bernard Lupé became a sought-after drummer until it became known that he didn't even exist.

On the day of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 , he was booked in a recording studio on the ground floor of the WTC, but was held up by a traffic jam, which may have saved his life.

literature

  • Bernard Purdie . In: The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz . 2nd edition, 2001.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ www.youtube.com Documentation by the New York Times (English)
  2. ↑ 100 Greatest Drummers of All Time. Rolling Stone , March 31, 2016, accessed August 6, 2017 .
  3. ↑ Bernard Purdie: Bernard "Pretty" Purdie - Top 100. Retrieved on June 12, 2020 (Only a selection is listed there that does not consistently match the information).
  4. ↑ http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/aug05/articles/classictracks.htm
personal data
SURNAME Purdie, Bernard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Purdie, Pretty (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American drummer and session musician
DATE OF BIRTH June 11, 1939
PLACE OF BIRTH Elkton , Maryland