Bernard 'Pretty' Purdie to Receive Luminary Award at Pittsburgh Jazz Festival

With over 4,000 recordings as a sideman with 2,500 artists spanning seven decades, the world-renowned Bernard “Pretty” Purdie is the most recorded drummer in history. On Saturday, September 19, the 16th edition of the Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival (PIJF), co-presented by Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield, presents Bernard “Pretty” Purdie & Friends Celebrate Our America 250, commemorating Purdie’s syncopated supremacy and our nation’s anniversary. During the performance, Purdie will be presented with the PIJF Luminary Award for his lifetime of achievements and contributions to music.

Purdie will be backed by a locally assembled ensemble led by Pittsburgh bassist Dwayne Dolphin with pianist Max Leake, guitarist John Shannon, vocalist T. Marie, The Steel City Horns and other special guests. In addition, some of the world’s finest drummers and musicians will take the stage to pay tribute to the man who created a unique rhythm that has been heard around the world.  Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice founder Terri Lyne Carrington; Nate Smith, who was recently named Artistic Director of Newport Jazz Festival; and Jae Sinnett, Pittsburgh-native and Hampton, VA, media personality and founder of the Hampton Road Jazz Festival, brings a funky, rock inspired, jazz set called The Blur the Lines Project, featuring music by Jimi Hendrix, Rush, Led Zeppelin, Buddy Miles and more. 

“We are so excited to honor Bernard Purdie and the rhythm of our culture during America’s  semi- quincentennial as we examine how the pulse and passion of our music have influenced, not only American, but global, culture,” said Janis Burley, President/CEO of AWAACC and the festival’s Artistic Director and founder. “I recently saw Bernard and his band at the iconic Newport Jazz Festival, and it was a delight to witness him perform with power and grace while still locking down that unmistakable groove – The Purdie Shuffle.”

Purdie recorded on many iconic tracks including James Brown’s “It’s a Man’s World,” B.B. King’s “The Thrill is Gone,” Aretha Franklin’s “Rock Steady,” Steely Dan’s “Home at Last” and “Babylon Sisters,” to name a very select few. His mastery of rock, blues, jazz, R&B, Caribbean and Latin rhythms has influenced generations of drummers.

The Grammy Award-winning Terri Lyne Carrington, who will also perform at the festival on Sunday, described Purdie as, “one of the most iconic drummers of his time. The sheer amount of output he has given is astounding. He is an institution unto himself.” For Pittsburgh’s own percussion master Roger Humphries, it was Purdie’s adaptability that “made him great because of the fact that he could play so many styles, and no matter who he played with, he made them comfortable and made the whole band sound good.”

Purdie is lauded for his encyclopedic knowledge of musical styles, but it was his celebrated Purdie Shuffle that made him an invaluable sideman and gave him everlasting fame. The Shuffle is a halftime, midtempo blend of eighth note triplets and ghost notes, interlocking with driving snare, high-hat and bass drum accents and grooves that are conversant with blues, funk, rock, Latin and reggae rhythms. Purdie’s most famous display of the Shuffle can be heard on Steely Dan’s albums Aja and Gaucho, and many rock drummers have played their own versions of it, Including Jeff Porcaro of Toto on their pop-rock hit, “Rosanna,” Stewart Copeland of The Police on “Walking on the Moon,” and John Bonham on Led Zeppelin's “Fool in the Rain.”

The origin of the Purdie Shuffle can be traced back to Elkton, Maryland, a small town about 60 miles north of Baltimore, where the drummer was born and raised. “I lived next door to the train stop in Elkton,” Purdie fondly recalls. “I listened, and I heard ‘woof, woof, woof…” And then, there was a different train that changed sounds when it was leaving… So, I created the Purdie Shuffle from the sounds of the trains. It was just something that happened. It was a feel. It was a positive attitude, it was something that I could latch onto, and it worked for me because I was having fun with it… I didn't know it was going to be revolutionary. I had created a real piece of music, and it worked.”

The 11th of 15 children, Purdie was pounding out rhythms around his house as a toddler and  he was playing the drums when he was 10. He purchased his first drum set at 14, and his main music teacher was local drummer Leonard Haywood, who played in the Clyde Bessicks Big Band and brought Purdie into the orchestra. Purdie eventually took over the drum chair of the big band, performing in and around Elkton and in nearby Delaware, and he also played in local country & western and carnival bands. Purdie was the first Black graduate of Elkton Senior High School in 1960. He later spent a year and a half at Morgan State College in Baltimore and moved to New York in 1961.

In New York, Purdie’s first gigs as a sideman were with the R&B duo Mickey & Sylvia and saxophonist Buddy Lucas. In 1965, Purdie, whom New Yorkers nicknamed “Pretty” because they had trouble pronouncing his last name, recorded several tracks for James Brown, including “Ain’t That a Groove.” After those sessions, Purdie became a sideman in heavy demand, recording for a potpourri of artists across musical genres including King Curtis, Nina Simone, Miles Davis, Louis Armstrong and Hall & Oates. Purdie also served as Aretha Franklin’s musical director from 1970 to 1975, which yielded her critically-acclaimed albums, Amazing Grace and Young, Gifted and Black. Purdie also began a long-standing collaboration with composer Galt MacDermot, contributing demo tracks and arrangements that would become the 1968 rock musical, Hair, and he played on MacDermot’s soundtrack to the 1970 film, Cotton Comes to Harlem.

In 1973, Purdie founded the label Encounter Records, but it folded after five releases. In addition to the thousands of records he recorded as a sideman, Purdie has released nearly 30 albums as a leader. They include Purdie’s 1967 debut Soul Drums, his 1974 original motion picture soundtrack Lialeh, and his latest album, A Pretty Purdie Christmas, released in December 2024. On September 29 of that same year, Purdie was awarded the inaugural “Lifetime Achievement Award” at the UK Drum Show, held in Liverpool. In 2021, Purdie published the book, Let the Drums Speak!: The Life Story of the World’s Most Recorded Drummer.

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