Grady Tate

[Daniel A]

I'm curious to know what people here think of Grady Tate as a drummer. I think his drumming style is instantly recognizable (as well as his customary high-tuned snare drum). He hasn't always figured in smaller jazz groups that I tend to enjoy the most, but he's perfect as a session musician on many studio orchestra dates, soundtracks etc. As a straight jazz drummer he often plays with a quietly intense sound that I think works very well on dates such as Stan Getz's 'Sweet Rain'.

As my knowledge of 60s soul music is limited I'm also hoping for some perspective from fellow board members on his backbeat playing. He is one of the first jazz "session drummers" I know of that adopted groovy backbeats (for example heard on Jimmy Smith dates from 1967 onwards), and his polished style is very far from what, say, Bernard Purdie sounded like at the time. What I'd like to know is how original this style is, and to what extent it was inspired by other drummers completely outside jazz and probably beyond my knowledge.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

I think Grady was one of the leading jazz drummers of what eventually became known as Acid Jazz, along with Purdie, Idris Muhammad, Ray Lucas and Red Holt. Where he got it from I don't know. Purdie, Muhammad and Lucas all had experience in R&B but I've never heard that about Grady. Everybody was listening to the James Brown band and Booker T & the MGs and the Mar-Keys in those days, however.

MG

[mikeweil]

I really love his drumming! He is on hundreds of albums from the 1970's and 1980's. He was a good reader, adaptable to everything between jazz, soul, r & b, and latin, had a great groove, great time ... his bossa nova grooves are among the best and most authentic among all jazz drummers.

Take these for samples:

[Daniel A]

Thanks for your input! To me, it sounds as if he somehow always had a jazz musician's approach to backbeat playing, and it makes it all the more interesting for me. I sense something similar from Tootie Heath's playing on Hancock's 'Fat Albert Rotunda' which makes quite a contrast with the tracks with Purdie.

[mikeweil]

He definitely listened to Purdie - he copied a lick Purdie invented on the opening track of the Carter LP I pictured. But with a jazz drummer's approach, as far as lightness in sound and swing feeling is concerned.

And Grady is really tasteful, each and every time!

The lengthy trio/quartet tracks of the Jimmy Smith - Wes Montgomery Verve sessions are a very nice example of how he keeps the groove and improvises/interacts with the soloists - great ears.

To me, a really great drummer, just not an innovator in the strict sense - he had his own sound and feel, of course.

Edited September 17, 2012 by mikeweil

[Daniel A]

You mean the three syncopated hi-hat/bass drum accents? Is it "proven" that Purdie actually invented that lick?

BTW, Tate used that exact lick on the Hubert Laws album 'Crying Song' (on "How long will it be") which was recorded just two weeks before 'Uptown...', and incidentally his sound is untypically Purdie-like on that session, maybe partly because of the miking; the bass drum is distorted from being recorded too hot.

[mikeweil]

Yes, that's the one. There is a drum clinic videotape where Purdie claims this lick.

So Tate is on Crying Song ... back then I didn't like this album. Maybe I should re-listen.

Edited September 18, 2012 by mikeweil

[Harold_Z]

Just to mention that when Grady recorded an album for Skye as a vocalist the drummer was .....Purdie!

[Daniel A]

So Tate is on Crying Song ... back then I didn't like this album. Maybe I should re-listen.

I find 'Crying Song' to be the least interesting of Laws' CTI albums. I'd say - relisten only if you have the album at hand.

[mikeweil]

Will do!

I had the opportunity to hear and see Tate live only once, in an all star package where he backed Jimmy Smith - Kenny Burrell, Frank Foster and Jon Faddis were in the band. Grady was very relaxed an alert at the same time, and played a very nice free style solo with his bare hands. Ed Thigpen, who played in another band that same evening, sounded uninspired by comparison.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

I have Grady's Milestone album 'TNT' on which he sings throughout. I think he has one of the best voices I've ever heard.

MG

[Daniel A]

Just now I'm listening to the Kenny Burrell album "Guitar Forms". On the first track, 'Downstairs', Grady Tate is playing a kind of prototype shuffle back beat already in 1965. Note especially the fade out. 

No other drummer I've heard sounded like this in the mid-60s:

 

Edited February 18, 2021 by Daniel A

[danasgoodstuff]

14 hours ago, Daniel A said:

Just now I'm listening to the Kenny Burrell album "Guitar Forms". On the first track, 'Downstairs', Grady Tate is playing a kind of prototype shuffle back beat already in 1965. Note especially the fade out. 

No other drummer I've heard sounded like this in the mid-60s:

 

That sounds old fashioned to me, I mean old for 1965.  Like a more polished version of what R&B and straight blues drummers were doing in the '50s.

[Gheorghe]

If I remember right, Grady Tate was also the drummer on "Dizzy´s Dream-Band" from 1982 or 1983. I have a DVD of that event but my DVDplayer gave up. But I´m quite sure it was Grady Tate on the big band sections, very fine really . On the small band sections it was Max Roach on drums.....