Clyde Stubblefield, The Funky Drummer, Hip Hop's Most Sampled Beat Maker, Has Died at 73
FROM NPR MUSIC
Clyde Stubblefield, the funk drummer whose work with James Brown made him one of the most sampled musicians in history, died Saturday morning in Madison, Wisc., his publicist confirmed. Stubblefield was 73; his publicist did not provide a cause of death.
For most of his career, Stubblefield was better known in sound than in name. He joined James Brown's backing band in 1965, one of countless musicians on an ever-rotating roster. As he told NPR in 2015, the ensemble seemed to have more than enough drummers already when he showed up to audition. "I went on stage and there was five drum sets up there," he explained. "And I'm going, 'Wow, what do you need me for?'"
Still, his recordings with Brown managed to rise above the competition: Songs like "Cold Sweat," "Say It Loud — I'm Black And I'm Proud" and "Mother Popcorn" are now revered as a gold standard for funk drumming. A generation later, he would have an even bigger impact on hip-hop, as the pattern he'd played on 1970's "Funky Drummer" proved irresistible to producers. The track's distinctive break, a sixteenth beat punctuated by deft, delicate snare hits, has been sampled on hundreds of songs.
This articles continues at NPR Music [...]
Listen to John "Jabo" Starks and Clyde Stubblefield talk about the grooves they laid down on many of James Brown's biggest hits. From the article: The Original Funky Drummers On Life With James Brown
No comments:
Post a Comment
Add your comments to this post. You may comment anonymously.
Comments with links to other websites and with inappropriate language will not be published.
Please share this story on your social media pages. Thank you.
Click on Enter Comment to begin.