Clyde Stubblefield
Clyde Stubblefield was about the best drummer there ever can be. He was hugely influential in Jazz. As reported by NPR, he was also influential in Funk. He worked with the revolutionary James Brown, and his beat/s were the most resampled in history, including in Hip-Hop and Punk. But, he was more than a James Brown appendage, as NPR briefly conveys. While it was James Brown who devised the signature first-beat Funk rhythm, by voicing it to his drummer, it was Clyde Stubblefield who played it out in infinite ways, creating more Funk beats. "Stubblefield is one of the most sampled drummers in history, the man whose uncanny ability to deconstruct pop music's simple 4/4 rhythms into a thousand different sly syncopations laid the foundation not only for funk, but for most of hip-hop, as well."[30]
Stubblefield had a life beyond James Brown, first working with Otis Redding, and later with Randy Sabien. Madison and Wisconsin are not exactly the greatest incubators of jazz or the blues - but they have a thing, (and they produced Les Paul). In the area of Northern Illinois and Southern Wisconsin, Stubblefield and Sabien were a part of a bunch of musicians who regularly played the clubs - in jazz and folk, which included Jim Post, Corky Siegel and John Prine. In Madison, Stubblefield played along with Sabien's jazz musicians, sometimes in the UW Student Union 2, filling the place with music, casually, and without fanfare. They also appeared on Prairie Home Companion and Madison's "Whad'Ya'Know?"
"For over twenty years [Clyde] played Monday nights with his band, The Clyde Stubblefield Band, in downtown Madison." - wiki
So, he died today, in Madison. Legendary Prince helped pay his medical bills, prior to Prince's death. Stubblefield, one of the greatest musicians in American musical history, had no medical insurance. That is unforgivable. But, I guess he just kept on living for his music, in the same way I keep living for this LJ. The day the Funky Drummer died.
Stubblefield had a life beyond James Brown, first working with Otis Redding, and later with Randy Sabien. Madison and Wisconsin are not exactly the greatest incubators of jazz or the blues - but they have a thing, (and they produced Les Paul). In the area of Northern Illinois and Southern Wisconsin, Stubblefield and Sabien were a part of a bunch of musicians who regularly played the clubs - in jazz and folk, which included Jim Post, Corky Siegel and John Prine. In Madison, Stubblefield played along with Sabien's jazz musicians, sometimes in the UW Student Union 2, filling the place with music, casually, and without fanfare. They also appeared on Prairie Home Companion and Madison's "Whad'Ya'Know?"
"For over twenty years [Clyde] played Monday nights with his band, The Clyde Stubblefield Band, in downtown Madison." - wiki
So, he died today, in Madison. Legendary Prince helped pay his medical bills, prior to Prince's death. Stubblefield, one of the greatest musicians in American musical history, had no medical insurance. That is unforgivable. But, I guess he just kept on living for his music, in the same way I keep living for this LJ. The day the Funky Drummer died.