Breakbeat Tuesday – You Done Did It

So it just happened by chance that the past 2 Breakbeat Tuesdays were with songs featuring one of the greatest drummers of our time, Bernard “Pretty” Purdie so this week I decided to dedicate solely to this man who is one of the greatest of all time and without a doubt one of the godfathers of the breakbeat.

To say that Pretty Purdie changed the game is an understatement. His unique innovations in drumming changed the way that not only the instrument was played in pop music but also in the way that it was recorded. And his innovations in rhythm and time are invaluable. Let’s not mention that his drumming can be found on basically the laundry list of the GOATS of music – James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Gil Scott Heron, Steely Dan, Curtis Mayfield, The Beatles, Miles Davis, Hall & Oates, The Rolling Stones and so on and so on.

When I was in school (and yes, I went to college for this music shit haha…) one of the things that I studied was the ancient African tradition of spacing, breath, time or air interspersed between the notes in music and how that empty space was just as important if not more to the construct of the song. The notes, beats, melody are the materials that the song is made up of but the empty space between all of that, the “ups” or the “ands” is actually where the song truly lives. I don’t want to go to far into it because that’s like thesis material, but point being, Purdie has a philosophy with his drumming that is pretty much exactly this. He calls it his “ghostnotes” as you can see in his explanation here.

Pretty Purdie is directly responsible for so many famous recorded drum beats in history it’s ridiculous. But here are just a few that I love and want to share with the world. The first one is the ferocious “Soul Drums” off of the also titled album from 1968. Basically it’s just a soul-jazz saxophone vamp that kindly steps out of the way when Purdie is ready to come in and blow the roof off the place with absolutely THUNDEROUS drumming. See for yourself.

Bernard “Pretty” Purdie “Soul Drums” (Date, 1968)

Next up is the song “Hap’nin” from the Purdie composed soundtrack to “Lialeh.” For those that don’t know, “Lialeh” is an adult film (called “The Black Deep Throat”) in 1974. I’ve never seen it, but this is a pretty dope instrumental funk jam from the soundtrack.

Bernard Purdie “Hap’nin” (Bryon, 1974)

Last but not least is a track from the 1977 collaboration album between Purdie and The Last Poets. I think this is a great track that showcases his drumming as the sole instrument in a song and the driving force, even when it doesn’t actually stand out in front and more just rides in the background as the wave that The Poets can ride on.

The Last Poets “Blessed Are Those Who Struggle (Douglas, 1977)

Breakbeat Tuesday – Rock Rock Yall

I have so much going on right now that I can’t get into a full in-depth thing about this next record. All I know is that it’s a MONSTER, and that I played it somewhere and sometime in my set on Sunday to thunderous effect. I first heard this in the form of Kool G Rap’s “Untouchable Remix” of  “On The Run.” Someone told me it was a Ray Bryant record so I spent the next 6 months buying every record by dude I could find, until I copped “Up Above The Rock.” Like so many soul jazz records of the late 60s it was chock-filled with tepid standards of the time like “Little Green Apples” and Burt Barcharach jawns. But the title cut? Damn… So ill, and it’s been a favorite ever since in my sets. The production is very unique in it’s sound, as it’s on Cadet and they had a very distinctive sound and feel to their records at the time, courtesy of producer Richard Evans. The composition of the song is very cinematic and matched perfectly for the storytelling prowess of G. Rap’s mafia fairytales. And to me this was one of the first productions that made me think the Trackmasters had taken their shit to the next level. Anyway, a Philly DJ living in Brooklyn plays a jazz song by a Philly pianist sampled by a Queens MC at a party in Los Angeles, and all because of that, it being give to you.

Ray Bryant “Up Above The Rock” (Cadet, 1968)

And for good measure,

Kool G Rap & DJ Polo “On The Run (Untouchable Version)” (Cold Chillin’, 1992)

Breakbeat Tuesday – Records From My Brother

First and foremost, I want to send a Rest In Peace shout to Lena Horne & Frank Frazetta. Two people from another generation who changed things by just doing them – no more and no less.

A couple of days ago was my baby brother Walker’s birthday so I want to give him a shout for that. Happy belated officially up pon the site, my dude. He’s my brother but also he’s the best dude in the world and that’s real rap. We’ve always been close and it’s tough not being with him on his birthday and just in general. But he truly is one of the most amazing dudes I’ve ever had the honor to know in my life. Kind, absolutely brilliant, and talented to a depth that I don’t think that I can truly comprehend. Here’s the sucker, with our 2 sisters, our mom and yours truly.

So the other day I was having a bit of a twitter rampage – not in a bad sense really, but more in a reflective manner. So during my barrage of 140s I made the remark that this marks my 20th year in the game as being a DJ (thank you, thank you – hold your applause.) I’ll probably reflect on that in the coming months, but I’m talking about The Dude here. So I was a DJ for the majority of Walker’s childhood and adolescence and he’s always been “into it” in a passive sense. I don’t think he actually tried to DJ but after watching his older brother do his thing I know he installed turntables in his bedroom. We definitely share tastes and values as to what we like musically, which in a nutshell could be boiled down to various Moog records and The Beatnuts. And I’m sure a lot of it has to do with wanting to be just like his big brother. But in many ways he would try to emulate something that I would do and end up taking it so far and beyond that it surprised everyone. Case in point – he knew that I dug for old records. So one day when he got out of school, on his journey downtown he passed a yard sale that had records in it. He picked up a couple things including one funny looking record that had a guy screaming on the cover between to samurai for 50 cents. (50 fucking cents!)

My phenom of a brother had just brought home Eugene McDaniels freak-folk-funk power-piece “Headless Heroes Of The Apocalypse” a tour-de-force concept album that was a complete departure from music that had been heard before or since. “The Left Rev Mc D” Eugene McDaniels, hailing from Kansas City, had already become an accomplished singer and songwriter by the mid 1960s, most notably with his song “100 Pounds Of Clay.” And he saw continued success later on in life having penned such hits like Roberta Flack’s “Feel Like Making Love” – which is a song a lot of you younger folk might actually think is just a D’Angelo record but actually was a huge hit when it came out in 1975. It was a #1 hit actually, and was nominated for a Grammy for Record Of The Year, Song Of The Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.

But something happened in the mid to late 60s. The Vietnam war was in full swing and people were mad disillusioned and just generally fed up with things. Out of this environment McDaniels wrote “Compared To What” which was the first song on Roberta Flack’s debut album. Later on that year Les McCann & Eddie Harris covered it for their “Swiss Movement” album, the recording of their performance at the Montreux Jazz Festival. The song was a runaway success, a simple protest song that took on a life of its own because it reflected the sentiments of the people and their frustrations with the direction our country was headed. And also because it was incredibly groovy. Check this video out, which after years of listening to this song, I never even knew it existed. Man is it COOKING…

So McDaniels signed onto Atlantic Records and proceeded to put out a couple of solo LPs. Both produced by the legendary Joel Dorn, the first of the two is “Outlaw” which was the first shot across the bow of Mc D’s new freak-folk-funk sound and philosophy – a philosophy that possibly can be summed up by the simple liner notes of the album: “Under conditions of national emergency, like now, there are only two kinds of people – those who work for freedom and those who do not… the good guys Vs. the bad guys” The album didn’t do so well, but less than a year later he returned with “Headless Heroes Of The Apocalypse.” This ground-breaking album set the bar kind of too high in my opinion. First of all the session players that they got for the recording were the best in the business at the the time – Harry Whitaker, Miroslav Vitous, Gary King, Alphonse Mouzon to name a few – all guaranteed that the groove would be locked it. Couple that with Mc D’s provocative but deadly on-point lyrics mad this an album that people just had never been privy to before. Approaching subjects like the co-opting of black culture by white artists (“Jagger The Dagger,”) the history of American colonialism (“The Parasite,”) and racial profiling and police brutality (“Supermarket Blues,”) Mc D opened up a new door for radical subject matter in pop music. This was a door that the powers that be didn’t want opened. Atlantic was one of the biggest record companies in the world at that time. The story is that Spiro Agnew, Vice President under Dick Nixon, personally called Ahmet & Nesuhi Ertegun, founders of Atlantic and, for the sake of  not “causing public unrest” demanded that support for the album be pulled. I don’t know what happened after that but promotions immediately dried up and the album sunk like a lead balloon.

Now like I said, McDaniels went on to have a successful career as a songwriter despite this order of Executive Branch Hating. And, as you probably have figured out by now, the music on “Headless Heroes” went on to be revived for it’s second life through the world of hip-hop music. But the story about how it all came about and went down is pretty remarkable to me. So thank you Mr. McDaniels for doing what you do and changing my world in a large sense. If it wasn’t for this record I truly believe that my mind would not be what it is today. And I have my brother to thank for putting me on. Thanks dude, and happy birthday! This Breakbeat Tuesday is dedicated – and completely indebted – to you!

Eugene McDaniels “Supermarket Blues” (Atlantic, 1971)

Eugene McDaniels “Jagger The Dagger” (Atlantic, 1971)

EDIT: About 20 minutes after I posted this particular Breakbeat Tuesday post about Eugene McDaniels, I get an email from Left Rev McD’s publicist. Like… really? Yes… really. Apparently some things are happening, and that is how they like to say “what is up.” More on that to come…

Breakbeat Tuesday – A Stoned Alliance

I was speaking to my friends about my baby brother the other who is like the best dude ever. He lives literally on the other side of the world (Japan) and I never see him, which sucks, but I know he’s there and he knows I here and no amount of physical space can erase that cause we’re brothers and I got his back forever.

I had been doing this thing with records for a while and he kind of fell into it after me on some old brother emulation schitt, but he also kind of owned it in his own way. For instance, he was the dude who put me up on Stone Alliance. You might know that from the Beastie Boys line “I like Sweetie-Pie from the Stone Alliance, everybody knows that I be dropping science.” Trust me when I tell you that the song he’s referring to is smooth as butter, unlike that rap lyric. Stone Alliance was a Afro-Cuban jazz fusion group who’s nucleus consisted of  established Jazz heavyweights Gene Perla, Don Alias and Steve Grossman. They got together in the early 70s and only put out a few records, but during that run they laced us with this saxophone-driven funk monster “Sweetie-Pie.” Simple, effective, to the point, and absolutely on fire…

Stone Alliance “Sweetie-Pie” (Happy Bird, 1976)

Here are two really great usages of this sample, both used in completely different ways but both kind of incredible. The first is a 7″ by the mysterious Chopp Master Flopp, better known to must as Brooklyn’s own DJ Spinna. The illustrious Spinna does a masterful job with “Peetie Swei” where he basically just takes the original and chops it to all hell , completely re envisioning the original. He didn’t need anything except the original record and the MPC.

Chopp Master Flopp “Peetie Swei” (Sure Shot, 2006)

The second usage here is the Large Professor Remix of Leader’s Of The New School’s “What’s Next.” This was the lead single off of the second LONS album and, while the original is okay, Extra P propels it into a completely different ballpark with his take on it. Based mainly off the 24-Carat Black “Brown Baggin'” sample, he uses the horns from “Sweetie-Pie” to complete the chorus and bridge. This is a great example of an era when rap used multiple samples in one song and yet somehow it worked and didn’t sound cacophonous.

Leaders Of The New School “What’s Next (Large Professor Remix)” (Elektra, 1993)