Bernard Purdie & Friends at The Falcon

Which musician did Aretha Franklin definitely NOT want missing from the line-up when she recorded her most inspired albums at the beginning of the seventies?

Who provided the back-beat for Steely Dan's "Aja", and for whom have Isaac Hayes, Donny Hathaway, B.B. King, "Sweet" Lou Donaldson, Joe Cocker and Hank Crawford reserved that stool behind the drum kit? No other drummer in the last three decades has seen the interior of a recording studio as often as Bernard "Pretty" Purdie.

An all-time great soul, R&B, funk, and pop drummer, Bernard Purdie's impeccable time and mastery of backbeats and grooves are celebrated...

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Which musician did Aretha Franklin definitely NOT want missing from the line-up when she recorded her most inspired albums at the beginning of the seventies?

Who provided the back-beat for Steely Dan's "Aja", and for whom have Isaac Hayes, Donny Hathaway, B.B. King, "Sweet" Lou Donaldson, Joe Cocker and Hank Crawford reserved that stool behind the drum kit? No other drummer in the last three decades has seen the interior of a recording studio as often as Bernard "Pretty" Purdie.

An all-time great soul, R&B, funk, and pop drummer, Bernard Purdie's impeccable time and mastery of backbeats and grooves are celebrated. He recorded with James Brown, King Curtis, Louis Armstrong, Gato Barbieri, Hank Crawford and Dizzy Gillespie in 1980 at the Montreux Jazz Festival. He was CTI's house drummer in the '60s and '70s, - working with Grover Washington, Jr. and George Benson. Purdie toured with Curtis and Aretha Franklin in 1970, and was Franklin's music director until 1975. He has continued to work steadily and can be heard on countless discs by Brown, Franklin, Curtis, Gillespie, and Crawford among others.

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