A Conversation With Bernard Purdie

This past Saturday, I had the pleasure of being in conversation with legendary drummer, Bernard “Pretty” Purdie at the James Brown African American Room at the Newark Public Library alongside Jerome Jennings to a packed house of attendees. For a little over an hour and a half, we got to hear about Mr. Purdie’s life, from his upbringing as a child to his journey throughout the music industry where he played a major role in some of the greatest artists recording careers. It was great to hear stories first hand about some of his recording sessions and how he navigated thought the industry to become the most recorded drummer in history.

With over 4000 songs to his credit, Bernard Purdie is treasure who I hadn’t seen in person since 2012 when we toured in St. Petersburg Russia together so it was great to reconnect with him and at the kick-off event for the month long Black History programming that JBAAR has perfectly created. Since we were in the same room with the perfect opportunity, I didn’t hesitate to get a few rare items from my Lialeh collection signed including an OG VHS, the scarce vinyl soundtrack and the extremely rare film poster.