Bernard "Pretty" Purdie -

Purdie Good! / Shaft

Posted: October 17th, 2008

Date: 1971
Release: Prestige #24176
Cover Art: view / download
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Bernard “Pretty” Purdie’s impeccable beats have dominated hundreds of great soul, R&B, funk, jazz, and pop records. A legendary and versatile drummer, he began pounding on pots and pans at the age of six, graduating to drums a few years later. By the time he was 21, he had firmly established himself at the top of the New York studio scene. Always in demand, he recorded with such masters as James Brown, King Curtis, and George Benson during the ‘60s, and toured with Aretha Franklin through the mid-‘70s, eventually becoming the Queen of Soul’s musical director. By the time he recorded Purdie Good! & Shaft in 1971, his popularity was so tremendous that he was taking 15-20 studio calls per week. These two solo albums capture Purdie in the heyday of his funky drumming style, thumping his way through a high-energy instrumental set of originals and covers.

Purdie Good! kicks off with a vamped up cover of James Brown’s “Cold Sweat.” The crystal clear engineering of Rudy Van Gelder allows our ears to focus in on Purdie’s rock solid arrangement skills. Leading the band from behind his kit, Purdie keeps his horn section as tight as the Godfather himself. One strongly swinging solo follows another, as Purdie and bassist Norman Edwards lock in bullet-proof grooves. Other funkified covers follow: a pop-tinged “Everybody’s Talkin’,” a wah-guitar pedaled “Theme From Shaft,” and a hard hitting Buddy Miles classic, “Them Changes.” Featuring a diverse selection of songs, Purdie’s two solo albums broke free of the stale ‘70s jazz-funk formula that undermined the creative vitality of the Prestige label. Far from groundbreaking, Purdie Good! & Shaft simply crackle with a raw uncluttered funk that is seldom heard in the age of technocratic music producers and $10,000 a day studios. A whole lot better than “Purdie good,” these records are exactly what you should play when looking for an excuse to get up off of that thang.