8/4/2019 Bass Player Great Rhythm Sections Part 3

1/7

U N I T E D W E S T A N D continuedwith a surprisingly light touch. "Sometimes wework out some little pattern," Hood says. "Othertimes we just start playing, and we fi t togethersomehow.Asa rhythm sectionwe:vebeen togetherover 30years, and we don't mind saying, 'Thatdon't work, tr y something else.' Sometimes Rogerwillsay, 'Hey, do this.' And I say/Look, you playthe drums and I'Uplay the bass. ' It's funny to us,but other people think, Shit-they're gonna getinto a fight.Butyou have to do that."

Their mali activity, though, iskeeping theirears open. "Vve're better listeners than we arepiayers,"Hawkins laughs.SaysHood, "Doing ses-sion work, it's key to listen to people. Otherwiseyou're not working with the artists-you're work-ingagainst them. It's not just about the drums orthe bass. It's about the whole song."Essential RecordingsT h e S ta p l e S in g e r s : B e a l t i t u d e : R & s pe c t Y l l u rs e lf , S t a x lF a n l l l s y . P a u l S i m n n : T h e re G o e s R h y m in ' S im l lf l , W a r n e r B r o s .R o d S t ew a r t: A t la n ti c C r u ss in g , W a rn e r B ro s .

~ 110

Carefully controlling note length, Hood rocks "This World" with a typically swaying two-barfigure. Hawkins freli>ly v".ries his hi-hat while the kick and snare march along.J = 102

Space and steady eighth-notes are the keys to the lick that launched a thousa"d Chevycommerci als in "I'll Take You TheJ'e." Note how the. kick-drum syncopations move in and out Ofthe bus figure. (Ska historians will recognize a similar, groove in the 1969 Harry J. Alistarstune ''The Liquidator.")

8/4/2019 Bass Player Great Rhythm Sections Part 3

2/7

U N I T E D W E S T A N D continued not? Richards is one of the funkiest rhythm gui-tarists inrock It's what Wyman and. Watts didbehindRichar

8/4/2019 Bass Player Great Rhythm Sections Part 3

3/7

J = 192

with my [left-hand] middle finger and came upwith those slides. Everyone said, 'Yeah-that's itl'"Essential RecordingsT he S in g le s C o lle c t io n : T he L o nd on Y e ar . s ;a b k c o ; S t ic k y F i n g er .s ,

R o ll i n g S t o n e s ; S o m e G i rls , R o l l i n g S t o n e s .

B o b M o o r e & B u d d y H a rm a nM U S I C C I T Y F O U N D I N G F A T H E R S"We created as we went," says Bob Moore. "It'ssimple, but that's the way it was." Nonetheless,the sounds Moore and drummer Buddy Harmaninvented during their long Nashville studio part-

"Drums with notes": Wyman's steady roots act as extensions of Watts's kick drum on "19thNervous Breakdown," and those sympatheti e slides give Charlie's tom fills even m.ore oomph.Swing feelJ =96 n er sh ip r ema in t he pattern for country musiciansto this day. "Those guys influenced everybody

8/4/2019 Bass Player Great Rhythm Sections Part 3

4/7

U N I T E D W E S T A N D continuedhad to think about where Bob was going to go,"Buddy says. "I just knew." Harman's apparentintuition didn't happen by accident, though."Buddy listened-mainly to the rest of the rhythmsection," Moore notes. "He understood that adrummer's #1 priority is time, but he was alsoflexible. He moved when it had to be moved."

When Hannan first sat down behind a kitinside a Nashville studio, few people had a duewhat drums were .supposed to do in countrymusic. "Back then people were scared of drums,so I had to try things and hope they would work,"Buddy recalls. "I wasn 't influenced by anybody."It seems almost laughably simple to describe

their signature styles: one and three in the bass, a5-6-7 -1 walk-up, it triadic 4/4 line; on drums anairy two and four on the snare, a swingy shuffleon the hi-hat, and a notable absence of kick drum."I didn't playa lot of bass drum in the early years,"Buddy says. "I had to keep it kind of light." Infact Harman's playing can be incredibly delicate--breeze-blown sand caressing the solid rock ofMoore's downbeat. "Bob just had such a goodgroove," Buddy says . "He was always right on topofthe beat, and he played good lines. We just feltit right together,"

Youcan feelthe gently insistent musical motionbehind such country legends as Patsy Cline, ErnestTubb, Webb Pierce, Kitty Wells, and Ray Price,

C h u c k R a in e y & B e r n a rd P u r d ie with them; Bernard was flexible. The subdivision-sinhisgrooves awakened a similar feel in me. Hegave me so much to playoff that no matter whatI did it worked." Of his multi-layered approachPurdie explains, "The key isapplying a half-timefeel to the music. That frees me up to add theflavor of eighth-note, triplet, and 16th-note

M A D E I N N E W Y O R KChuck Rainey and Bernard Purdie hailed fromOhio and Maryland respectively, but their leg-endary grooves mirrored the hustle and bustleand pulsating energy ofN ewYork, the city in which theywere th e first -call rhythm sec-tion from the mid '60sth rough the -early '70s. In1965, sess ion contractor!guitarist Eric Gale met Raineyin a Sam Cooke touring bandand brought him int.o a stu-dio fold that already includedthe young hotshot Purdie.The pair gelled instantly. SaysChuck, "Bernard always"played with a lot of powerand intensity, and-moreimportant-plenty of nuance.Most drummers played a setbeat that demanded you go

8/4/2019 Bass Player Great Rhythm Sections Part 3

5/7

U N I T E D W E S T A N D continuedsubdivisions on the upbeats, which really fattensthegroove.Chuck instinctivelyfeltthat and lockedinto it."Rainey and Purdie became the heartbeat ofGotham's A-Team, surrounded by such guitaristsas Gale, Carl Lynch, and Cornell Dupree, andkeyboardists Paul Griffin and Richard Tee. (JerryIemmett and [immy Johnson were Chuck's andBernard's bass-and-drums alternates.) Thoughthe duo's versatility enabled them to handledates for acts as diverse as the Shirelles, LouisArmstrong, and Paul Butterfield, they found atrue soulmate in the Queen herself, ArethaFranklin. Bernard smiles, ~Aretha had a naturalshuffle to everything she did, just likeChuck andIhad. We would just listen toher play piano andit was all there." That implied shuffle, whichPurdie traces to his growing up listening to NewOrleans rag, funk, and march grooves, is richlyevident in such straight-eighth Aretha classicsas"Rock Steady" and "Spanish Harlem."Whilesympathetic vibrations amo.ngthe threemay have inspired the virtuoso rhythm-sectionperformances beneath "Until You Come Back toMe (That's WhatI'm Gonna Do]," make no mis-take-the song alwayscame firstwith Rainey andPurdie. "We would listento the melody and lyricson every song and let them dictate what weplayed," notes Chuck. "Often Bernard would ask

music, and their legacy can still be heard on theairwaves today.

What makes Sly & Robbie so great? That'sdrums more than anything else.Most of the timemy eyesare dosed, and Iust hear everything sodear. I have a painted picture of everything."

8/4/2019 Bass Player Great Rhythm Sections Part 3

6/7

U N I T E D W E S T A N D continuedcritical. In fad, for most of his parts Robbie isplaying less that: 50% of the time; which makesthe notes he does play all the more important.A s Dunbar lays down a trance-like .groove,Shakespeare softens his almost machine-likeaccuracy with a divine, super-deep feel that grabsyou in the gut. His thumping tone, once coaxedfrom Fender Jazz and Hefner Beatie Basses, nowcomes from what he considers the ultimate axe:tile Paul Reed Smith bass. (PRS basses have longbeen discontinued, although the company mayre-introduce them in the near future.) As forthatultimate feel-well, he says, it's more spiritualthan anything else. "You have to always have thatpersonal channel open up to God. Most peoplesay they-are playing the instrument-but it's morelike the instrument is playing you."

Essential RecordingsP e t e r T o s h : le g a l i z e It , C o lu m h la I I lack U l l u r u : B la ck U h u m ,VirginUK. l Iu rn in g S p ea r: M a rc iJ s G a lV e y , Island. Sly &R u b b i e : la n gu a ge B a rr i& r , I s l a n d .

Geddy Lee & Ne il PeartW H A T A R U S H"When you think of Rush, you don't think of asedate rhythm section," said Geddy Lee in

While Lee and Peart are superb at laying itdown under a verse or chorus, their greatestmoments come when a song's excitement peaks,especially during Alex Lifeson's soaring guitarsolos. Geddy's grinding tone (courtesy ofvariousFender Jazz , Rickenbacker, Steinberger , and Wal

"Limelight" and "TIZ."Rush has become more soulful over the years,

but the exciting rhythm-section interplay stillcomes tothe fore=-especial ly at their live shows,which continue to sell.out arenas 15 years afterthe band's debut, ?'

8/4/2019 Bass Player Great Rhythm Sections Part 3

7/7