GRADY TATE
I first met Grady when he and Ben Tucker were BillyTaylor's
rhythm section at the Hickory House in the early seventies. Nothing flashy,
but good "time" and good taste. And time and more time and more time.
No wonder he had become one of the premier session drummers in NYC.
Tate played on many of Wes Montgomery's and Jimmy Smith's most popular
recordings, as well as with Stan Getz, Oscar Peterson, Count
Basie, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee, Lena Horne, Tony
Bennett, Kenny Burrell, Benny Goodman, Nat Adderley, J.J. Johnson,
and Kai Winding, among countless other jazz greats
-- (and not-so-greats. That's Grady and Ben propping me up behind my
home page version of Stompin' at the Savoy.
Late one night, at the end of the last set at the Hickory
House, Billy turned to Grady and asked, "Do you want to sing one?" Grady
sang Body and Soul and I and the rest of the room was astonished.
What an incredible voice! Unbeknownst to most of us, Grady had been
singing before he taught himself to play drums. He began singing at age
four, in Durham, NC, for church and school audiences, and singing
has always been his first love. Arranger
Gary McFarland thought enough of Tate's singing voice to record a number
of vocal albums for his short-lived Skye label. These early recordings
feature an outstanding group of little known songs.
Above, Grady and Ben Tucker suffer through a low point in their respective
careers accompanying me at a McCaffrey & McCall Christmas party.
Here's a link to the drummerworld page featuring Grady...
http://www.drummerworld.com/drummers/Grady_Tate.html
Here's
a link to the Grady Tate CD page at Amazon.com...
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