01.Cold Sweat
02.Montego Bay
03.Purdie Good
04.Wasteland
05.Everybody's Talkin'
06.You Turn Me On
07.Theme From Shaft
08.Way Back Home
09.Attica
10.Changes
11.Summer Melody
12.Butterfingers.
Bernard "Pretty" Purdie (drums)
Ted Dunbar, Billy Nichols (guitar)
Charlie Brown (tenor saxophone, trumpet)
Warren Daniels, Willie Bridges (tenor saxophone)
Danny Moore, Gerry Thomas, Houston Person (trumpet)
Harold Wheeler, Neal Creque (electric piano)
Norman Pride (congas).
Recorded in October 1972 and June 1973.
Englewood Cliffs, NJ (1971).
Legends of Acid Jazz: The Best of Bernard Purdie is a pounding demonstration of why Bernard "Pretty" Purdie was considered one of the premier "funky drummers" of the late 1960s and early 1970s. A compilation of his two 1971 solo albums Shaft and Purdie Good!, Legends opens with a cracklin' cover of James Brown's standard "Cold Sweat" and includes other pop covers such as "Everybody's Talkin' at Me" and a thumping, purely instrumental version of Isaac Hayes' "Theme From Shaft," with a dash of reggae sun splashed in from "Montego Bay." According to the liner notes (the originals from Purdie Good), Purdie patterned the bands on this release (which included pianists Harold Wheeler and Neal Creque, guitarists Billy Nichols, Ted Dunbar and Lloyd Davis, bassist Norman Edwards and Norman Pride on congas) after the soul/rock stylings of Blood Sweat & Tears. If that's truly the case, Legends of Acid Jazz: The Best of Bernard Purdie pulsates and burns with soul/rock fire that thoroughly and absolutely eclipses Purdie's original inspiration. This is the sound of funky jazz from the end of the 1960s, so funky and swinging it just about dares you to stand still and not dance. ~ Chris Slawecki.
Purdie
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