Elkton, Maryland, U.S.
Birth name Bernard Lee Purdie
Also known as
Bernard "Pretty" Purdie
Mississippi Bigfoot
Birth name Bernard Lee Purdie
Also known as
Bernard "Pretty" Purdie
Pretty Purdie
Mississippi Bigfoot
Lee Hildebrand: "That
Jon Hammond, an obscure B-3 organ player who recently relocated from New York to Berkeley (where he'd grown up ni the 60s), was able to get the famous drummer to fly in for the Kimball's engagement was an impressive feat. Completing
the quartet, which Hammond calls the Late Rent Session Men, were his buddy of
some thirty years, onetime Crusaders and Miles Davis guitarist
Barry Finnerty (who just moved from New York to Oakland), and veteran Bay Area tenor saxophonist Bennett Friedman.
Whether playing swing, shuffle, bossa nova, or funk patterns, Purdie served as a springboard for his cohorts' solos, his sly, surprise-filled accents on chorus turn-arounds lifting them to peak after peak of excitement. Finnerty's scorching, fast-fingered flights unfortunately were obscured in the sound mix till near the end of the often-incendiary ninety-minute set of Hammond originals, but Friedman's muscular, barking hard-bop attack eut through like a switchblade throughout. With his clean, fleet articulation and judicious use of dynamics, Hammond proved a commanding organist of the Jimmy Smith school. His move back to the Bay Area is most welcome, as is Finnerty's."
—Lee Hildebrand
**Actual tracking session at Quad Recording Studios NYC