Bernard Purdie

[7/4]

The Man behind the beat

Sunday, June 04, 2006

By BRADLEY BAMBARGER

Star-Ledger Staff

In the '60s, Bernard Purdie was the first-call rhythm "fixer" for New York recording sessions, laying down solid grooves for hit song after hit song. This drummer was "the man" -- and he knew it.

Cutting a killer R&B rhythm track demands confidence, and Purdie liked to advertise that he had the right stuff. In the studio, he took to arranging signs on either side of his drum kit; one set read, "You done it ... You done hired the hit-maker -- Bernard 'Pretty' Purdie."

It's hard to square such tales of youthful bravado with the mellow, avuncular presence across the table at Don's Sandwich Shop/Drummer's Corner in Boonton. Purdie, who turns 65 on June 11, recalls that he changed his tune at the tail end of the '60s, when a good friend dressed him down after the cocksure drummer dropped one too many names.

"When she was done with me, I felt about an inch high -- and my behavior changed 180 degrees," says Purdie, a longtime resident of Springfield. "Having played on so many hit records -- my head had gotten big, real big. But I was just a country boy who came to the big city, really. I needed someone to set me straight."

Just as Purdie finishes recollecting his epiphany of modesty, Aretha Franklin's "Think" rolls out of the radio, beat first. It's a reminder that a resume like Purdie's might make anyone a bit cocky. He drummed on most of Franklin's Atlantic-era classics; those are also his grooves on James Brown tracks sampled by myriad hip-hop producers. Steely Dan demanded the famous "Purdie Shuffle" for their "Aja" and "Royal Scam" albums.

That's not to mention Purdie's drumming on countless '60s tunes, from Mickey & Sylvia's "Love Is Strange" and Tim Rose's "Morning Dew" to tracks by the Animals and the Monkees. In the '70s, Purdie was the beat behind B.B. King's "The Thrill Is Gone" and Percy Sledge's "When a Man Loves a Woman," as well as for LPs by Nina Simone, Roberta Flack, Hank Crawford, Freddie Hubbard and Quincy Jones. He not only fueled Isaac Hayes' "Shaft" but, in an era when dance music was still driven by carbon-based rhythm sections, Van McCoy's disco sensation "The Hustle."

Next Saturday, the eve of Purdie's birthday, many of his longtime friends and colleagues will gather to celebrate the drummer's iconic legacy with a concert at Cedar Brook Park in Plainfield.

The free, all-day affair will feature Purdie playing with three bands -- the Groove Masters (a soul-jazz trio with guitarist Grant Green Jr. and organist Reuben Wilson); the 14-piece New Pulse Band (led by composer Galt McDermott, a friend since Purdie played on his cast album to "Hair"); and a Stax-oriented R&B revue, featuring Booker T & the MGs guitarist Steve Cropper and the original "Blues Brothers" horn section. Isaac Hayes, who got his start in Memphis as a staff writer for Stax Records, will close the day with his own set.

The all-star revue portion of the Purdie celebration will also include singers Eddie Floyd (of "Knock on Wood" fame) and Phoebe Snow, with backing by the Hudson River Rats and key members of the "Saturday Night Live" and "Late Night with David Letterman" bands. Stax hits, Steely Dan tunes and "Blues Brothers" favorites are on the set list. The show's prime mover has been singer/harmonica player Rob Paparozzi, leader of the Hudson River Rats and Purdie's touring partner since the early '90s.

Paparozzi, a lifelong New Jerseyan, met Purdie in Greenwich Village in the late '80s, when the drummer was one of the R&B luminaries who cut loose in clubs with the Hudson River Rats. Since then, Purdie has been a fixture with Paparozzi's band, and Paparozzi has served as Purdie's music director on tours to Europe and Japan for performances and drum clinics.

Purdie couldn't be more unassuming these days, Paparozzi insists: "Bernard just loves playing music for people; it doesn't matter what it is -- a giant concert, a serious recording session, a drum clinic or someone's wedding. He's played with some heavy cats, and he's got great stories to tell. But he's never intimidating; he's good at just being one of the guys."

The drummer admits to allowing himself a little bit of intimidation, as when he peeks his head into classes at Drummer's Corner. (Purdie met Drummer's Corner owner Pat Clark when the latter brought his son to one of Purdie's clinics, homemade snare drum in hand. Purdie still uses that snare for private lessons at Clark's shop.) Purdie recalls that the music teacher in his hometown of Elkton, Md., "was an intimidator to say the least ...

"Leonard Hayward never raised his voice, but you were always on the edge of your seat -- you knew you'd better get what he was saying," Purdie says. "But he meant everything to me -- he taught me discipline, how to shut up and absorb what was going on around you. He taught me how to read and write music. When I got to New York, I thought everyone knew how to read, but that wasn't true; it gave me a leg up."

Purdie was born into a family of 15, losing his mother at age 11 and father at 13; he was raised by his grandparents and "people all over town." He was a gigging musician as a pre-teen, playing in a bar-band, Jackie Lee & the Angels. His heroes were big-band jazz drummers -- Sid Catlett, Louie Bellson, Gene Krupa, Cozy Cole, Papa Joe Jones, Christopher Columbus; their swinging hi-hat technique became a key element of Purdie's sound.

"Those swing drummers were timekeepers, and keeping time was what I was taught as my job," Purdie says. "To this day, that's what it's all about for me -- keeping that beat happening and everybody's feet moving."

Purdie moved to New York at the start of the '60s. One of his first sessions was for "Love Is Strange." He was paid $80 for four hours on a Sunday. The song "ended up making millions," he says, "but I felt rich with that 80 bucks, even though it was all gone by Tuesday, what with me buying drinks for everybody."

At his peak in the '60s, Purdie was working four sessions a day, six days a week, at triple union-scale pay -- "an instant groove-maker," as he likes to say. Purdie's black box of rhythm made him in demand to the point of being, it is often asserted, the world's most recorded drummer. His impeccable time was invaluable in the days before digital editing; when a rock band's drummer couldn't lay it down smoothly enough for a producer's liking, the producer would call on "Pretty" Purdie to get the job done.

Infamously, Purdie claimed -- and still claims -- that he was drafted to "fix" 20 or so early Beatles tracks. The drummer says he was moved to divulge this out of irritation over his students idolizing Ringo Starr; his brazenness in interviews earned him death threats from Beatlemaniacs. Purdie insists that the legend will be laid to rest in an autobiography, written with Ed Dennis, that he hopes will be published late this year or early next.

Jim Keltner -- another candidate for the world's most recorded drummer -- doesn't buy Purdie's Beatles story for a second. Still, he has been a Purdie fan ever since he heard "With This Ring" by the Platters on his Corvette's radio (and then did the research to find out who the drummer was).

"To this day, I melt whenever I hear 'With This Ring'," Keltner says. "I had to hear everything Bernard played after that. I got to meet him backstage at the Atlanta Pop Festival in '69, when he was playing with Al Kooper and I was with Delaney & Bonnie. Bernard was 'the man,' definitely, and let's just say that he was not bashful in those days. But he was great, let me bug him with a million questions.

"Later, Jeff Porcaro was like my kid brother, always hanging around, and I told him to seek out Bernard -- and he became a Purdie disciple," Keltner adds, referring to the late Toto drummer and session star. "Jeff's groove on Toto's 'Roseanne' that everybody loved? That was Purdie to the bone, practically an homage."

The "Purdie Shuffle" -- his funky signature technique -- is marked not only by its laid-back, half-time groove but by its "ghost notes," the little accents made by the drummer's hands on the rebound that help the locomotion rise to a polyrhythmic slow boil. In the "Classic Albums" documentary devoted to Steely Dan's "Aja," an entire segment is devoted to Purdie demonstrating that beat, ideal for the bluesy, laconic "Home at Last."

These days, Purdie is full of generosity about his peers (he's a big fan of Steve Gadd, who also played on "Aja" and plays with Eric Clapton now) and a younger generation of drummers (a photo of him with Steve Ferrone, now in Tom Petty's Heartbreakers, is among those adorning the walls of Don's Sandwich Shop). He's especially warm about such past colleagues as Franklin, whom he gives credit for the grooves on her records, saying "we got the beat straight from her piano-playing."

Purdie says Dennis plans for the last chapter of their book to revolve around Saturday's birthday concert. But despite his arthritis, the drummer isn't ready to lay his sticks down just yet. He just returned from Nashville, where he played on an album by country singer Alan Jackson, produced by bluegrass star Alison Krauss. (And, yes, the funky drummer likes country music, having played on Johnny Cash sessions.)

Coming from a large family, Purdie sired a big one himself, with two marriages producing seven children (three with his current wife, Barbara), 12 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren. He also has his drumming children -- and they can keep a teacher busy with more than just weak paradiddles. Purdie says that one of his '70s students, Max Weinberg, kept him as busy with "a young man's needs for personal counseling" as he did with trying to develop a groove to go along with his technique.

Purdie continues to stress the hard-to-come-by qualities of "feel" and "style" in young drummers, which he insists are gained only through trial-and-error in front of audiences that move (or not).

"I would work 24/7 if I could, and I love having something to offer the young people," Purdie says. "I don't care what the question is, I got the answer -- 'cause I lived it. Now, that's not being cocky, that's the truth."

Bernard Purdie and friends with Isaac Hayes

When: 3 p.m. June 10

Where: Cedar Brook Park, Plainfield

How much: Free

[Stereojack]

Infamously, Purdie claimed -- and still claims -- that he was drafted to "fix" 20 or so early Beatles tracks. The drummer says he was moved to divulge this out of irritation over his students idolizing Ringo Starr; his brazenness in interviews earned him death threats from Beatlemaniacs. Purdie insists that the legend will be laid to rest in an autobiography, written with Ed Dennis, that he hopes will be published late this year or early next.

Jim Keltner -- another candidate for the world's most recorded drummer -- doesn't buy Purdie's Beatles story for a second.

Purdie has been claiming this for years, but never names the tracks, perhaps he can't. A few years ago, somebody in Goldmine magazine suggested that there may be some truth to Purdie's claims. The Hamburg-era tracks by Tony Sheridan with Beatles backing were issued on Atco as by "The Beatles", and the drumming reportedly is more pronounced on the Atco release than on other releases of these tracks. Of course, the original drummer on the Sheridan sides was Pete Best, anyway, not Ringo.

Personally, I think Purdie's insistence on this matter may have tainted his reputation with some people, but there's no denying that he's one of the greatest.

[7/4]

Bernard Purdie and friends with Isaac Hayes

He works with Scientologists. How much credibility could he have?

[paul secor]

Judging from the Bernard Purdie interviews I've read, "modest" would be the last word I'd use to decribe him. He makes a lot of claims that I doubt he can back up. The discographies on LPs/CDs I've seen list Roger Hawkins as the drummer on "Think" and "When a Man Loves a Woman". Discographies can be wrong and misleading, but unless Mr. Purdie was imported to Alabama in early 1966 to play with the Quinvy studio band, I doubt very much that he played on "When a Man Loves a Woman". I would take anything that Mr. Purdie says with a grain (no, make that a shaker) of salt.

Edited June 5, 2006 by paul secor

[JSngry]

...Purdie, a longtime resident of Springfield...

Purdie's contrribution to the lone recording by Bleeding Gums Murphy is one of his finest moments.

[chris olivarez]

Generally conceit is not one of my favorite character attributes but I forgave it for Muhammad Ali and I can forgive it for Purdie. On the "Digital Montreux" album that he recorded with just Dizzy Gillespie and Toots Theilman who played guitar on this date-Purdie had to fill a lot of space and he did so admirably. Purdie shouldn't lie about anything on his resume-it's impressive enough without the bs but he's still one of my favorite drummers.

[DatDere]

those are also his grooves on James Brown tracks sampled by myriad hip-hop producers.

Another spurious claim... he is a great drummer, though.

[marcello]

When this was released, I really liked this one.

I havn't heard it in years, but I'll bet I'll still dig Purdie's drums.

LARRY CORYELL: FAIRYLAND

A PLACE OF DELICATE BEAUTY AND MAGICAL CHARM

RECORDED LIVE, MONTREUX, SWITZERLAND

1974 MEGA RECORDS, INC., USA

RECORDED: JUNE 18, 1971

RELEASED: 1974, USA

Produced by Bob Thiele

for Flying Dutchman Productions, Ltd.

Recorded June 18, 1971

Larry Coryell guitar, vocals (on 1)

Chuck Rainey bass

Pretty Purdie drums

1. Souls Dirge (9:39) [Larry Coryell]

2. Eskdalemuir (8:38) [Larry Coryell]

3. Stones.... (7:08) [Doug Davis]

4. Further Explorations For Albert Stinson (6:47) [Larry Coryell]

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

c.c.c.b.b. here reporting: i've had that lp sitting on my to-do pile for the last 8 mos. but i havent spun it yet becuase i am scared cause the cover painting really freaks me out and, besides, its called, fairyland. if it has b. purdie, is it funky?

oh and why would b.p. just LIE about the beatles thing?!? maybe he really did

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

those are also his grooves on James Brown tracks sampled by myriad hip-hop producers.

Another spurious claim... he is a great drummer, though.

Not entirely spurious - he DID play on "It's a man's, man's, man's world". But that's not a groove item.

MG

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Judging from the Bernard Purdie interviews I've read, "modest" would be the last word I'd use to decribe him. He makes a lot of claims that I doubt he can back up. The discographies on LPs/CDs I've seen list Roger Hawkins as the drummer on "Think" and "When a Man Loves a Woman". Discographies can be wrong and misleading, but unless Mr. Purdie was imported to Alabama in early 1966 to play with the Quinvy studio band, I doubt very much that he played on "When a Man Loves a Woman". I would take anything that Mr. Purdie says with a grain (no, make that a shaker) of salt.

I'm with Paul on this; a whole shaker of salt.

In particular, the ref to "Love is strange" is strange. That was recorded in 1956, when Bernard was still a country kid. On his own admission, he didn't get to NY until 1960.

And he really doesn't need to exaggerate; what he HAS done is great.

I met him at Brecon in 2000 and he was endlessly patient with me. A good guy and an impressive man, as well as a great drummer.

Really sorry to hear he has arthritis. Total bummer for a drummer.

MG

[mikeweil]

When this was released, I really liked this one.

I havn't heard it in years, but I'll bet I'll still dig Purdie's drums.

LARRY CORYELL: FAIRYLAND

A PLACE OF DELICATE BEAUTY AND MAGICAL CHARM

RECORDED LIVE, MONTREUX, SWITZERLAND

1974 MEGA RECORDS, INC., USA

RECORDED: JUNE 18, 1971

RELEASED: 1974, USA

Produced by Bob Thiele

for Flying Dutchman Productions, Ltd.

Recorded June 18, 1971

Larry Coryell guitar, vocals (on 1)

Chuck Rainey bass

Pretty Purdie drums

1. Souls Dirge (9:39) [Larry Coryell]

2. Eskdalemuir (8:38) [Larry Coryell]

3. Stones.... (7:08) [Doug Davis]

4. Further Explorations For Albert Stinson (6:47) [Larry Coryell]

Purdie was more or less the house drummer on this festival. He also was on Flying Dutchman LPs of Gato Barbieri and Oliver Nelson recorded live in that occasion, maybe even more. I remember hearing excerpts of these on the radio and the comments of a moderator who was surprised that "soul drummer" Purdie handled all these gigs so well .....

[Niko]

didn't he also claim to have fixed Miles Davis' Bitches Brew? I think I heard that on the radio once... (the claim, not Bitches Brew)

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

didn't he also claim to have fixed Miles Davis' Bitches Brew? I think I heard that on the radio once... (the claim, not Bitches Brew)

Yes - is that another pinch of salt? I know hardly anything about Miles Davis' recordings.

MG

[DatDere]

Another thing, the Shaft soundtrack lp credits Willie Hall for the famous drum intro on the title track (and everything else on the LP). However, Pretty Purdie did record his own version of the theme for an lp. Is this just sloppy research by the author, or...

[CJ Shearn]

Purdie on JB tracks? hmm.. its mostly Starks, Stubblefield and Don "Tiger" Martin, right?

[ep1str0phy]

Purdie has been claiming this for years, but never names the tracks, perhaps he can't. A few years ago, somebody in Goldmine magazine suggested that there may be some truth to Purdie's claims.

Although few well-traveled session musicians have thoroughgoing knowledge of all the cuts they play(ed) on, it would seem strange if a cat like Purdie (who seems to remember the minutiae of his various supposed sessions) didn't know the name of at least a couple of the Beatles tunes he backed.

Again though, it's agreed--he's one of the all time masters of the groove. No challenging that.

Edited June 14, 2006 by ep1str0phy

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Another thing, the Shaft soundtrack lp credits Willie Hall for the famous drum intro on the title track (and everything else on the LP). However, Pretty Purdie did record his own version of the theme for an lp. Is this just sloppy research by the author, or...

Sloppy research, I reckon, perhaps combined with ambiguous responses from Bernard. In the end, the guy who wrote the article COULD and SHOULD have checked his facts. If I were in Bernard's position, I'd have expected him to do his own homework.

MG

[Guy Berger]

didn't he also claim to have fixed Miles Davis' Bitches Brew? I think I heard that on the radio once... (the claim, not Bitches Brew)

Yes - is that another pinch of salt? I know hardly anything about Miles Davis' recordings.

MG

Purdie is not on Bitches Brew. He does play, I believe, on on the Davis track "Red China Blues".