Bernard "Pretty" Purdie is an American session drummer and is considered an influential and innovative exponent of funk. Known for his strict musical time keeping and "The Purdie Shuffle", Purdie is said to be The World's Most Recorded Drummer and has worked with many musicians including Charles Kynard, Grant Green, Aretha Franklin, Gil Scott-Heron, James Brown, Steely Dan, Miles Davis and Hummingbird. When Purdie worked as a session musician, he would place two signs beside his drum kit. The one on the left read "You done it!" The one on the right read "You done hired the hitmaker, Bernard 'Pretty' Purdie!"
Purdie was credited on the sound track album for Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978) and more recently he was the drummer for the 2009 Broadway revival of Hair and appeared on the associated Broadway cast recording.
Purdie is pehaps best known as a groove drummer with immaculate timing and makes use of precision half note, backbeats, and grooves. His signature sixteenth note hi-hat lick pish-ship, pish-ship, pish-ship is distinct and hard to copy and he is known for his versatility. He often employs a straight eight groove sometimes fusing several influences such as swing, blues and funk. Variations on this shuffle can be heard on songs such as Led Zeppelin's "Fool in the Rain" and "Rosanna" by Toto and the original Purdie shuffle can be heard on Steely Dan's "Babylon Sisters" and "Home At Last". Check out the video below to see why a drum machine can never replace "Pretty" Purdie.
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