Cold Sweating Purdie Style

Bernard "Pretty" Purdie: Cold Sweat and Wasteland
From: Purdie Good (Prestige, 1971)

In the world of breaks there's drummers and then there's Bernard "Pretty" Purdie. Responsible for the jaw dropping work on "Soul drums", this legend has worked with everyone who is anyone in the soul funk scene including Marvin Gaye, Aretha Franklin, Jackson 5, Miles Davis etc etc etc. His prolific output is enough to make you believe the claim that he's the "World's Most Recorded Drummer". To read more about his 40 plus years in the industry you can visit his website here.

Purdie Good is a decent introduction to Bernard's world, a typical mix of original and cover numbers all blessed with his superb skills.

Cold Sweat is one of my favourite covers of any James Brown song, ever. Starting from a musical vibe similar to the original, Purdie progresses the sound into a multi layered jam, before stripping the sound back to the bare minimum of his pounding drums and thundering bass line.

Wasteland shows that Purdie didn't have to be in full on kit wrecking mode to create great music. An epic slow burner, the tune starts with the simplest of horns and dubstyle bass before slowly building up momentum until it ignites in the final stages and slays the listener.

Listening to Purdie's version of Cold Sweat got me thinking about great covers of classic tunes so expect to see a few more posts focused on cover songs in the next few weeks, feel free to suggest your own favourites.