R.I.P.: Grady Tate (1932-2017)

(born Grady Bernard Tate on January 14, 1932 in Durham, North Carolina; died on October 8, 2017 in New York, NY.

Pics with my friend Grady Tate from the day we met for the first time, in 1979, after years listening to him as the superdrummer on hundreds of albums I loved (and forever will love), including most of Creed Taylor's productions for Verve and A&M/CTI with such artists as Wes Montgomery (Bumpin', Tequila, A Day In The Life, Down Here On The Ground, Road Song), J.J. Johnson & Kai Winding (Stonebone, Israel), Quincy Jones (Walking In Space, Gula Matari), Jimmy Smith (the Grammy-winning The Cat), Lalo Schifrin (Marquis de Sade, New Fantasy and many others), Donald Byrd, Cal Tjader, Gary McFarland, Kenny Burrell, Bill Evans & Claus Ogerman (one of my desert island discs, Bill Evans With Symphony Orchestra), Astrud Gilberto (Beach Samba), Stan Getz (Sweet Rain), Nat Adderley (You Baby), Herbie Mann (Glory Of Love) etc;

...Besides his solo albums as a tremendous baritone singer and over 500 recordings for people like Aretha Franklin, Johnny Hodges, Oliver Nelson, Billy Taylor, Ron Carter, Gabor Szabo, Roberta Flack, Houston Person, Joe & Bing, Paul Simon, Lou Donaldson, Shirley Scott, Donny Hatthaway, Jack McDuff, Chick Corea, Freddie Hubbard, Blossom Dearie, Arif Mardin, Urbie Green, Lena Horne, Michel Legrand (my favorite Twenty Songs Of The Century plus the superb live albums for Gryphon, Live At Jimmy's and Michel Legrand And Friends), Hank Jones, Gato Barbieri, Lionel Hampton, Gerry Mulligan, Oscar Peterson, Stephane Grappelli, Zoot Sims (including my favorite The Gershwin Brothers), Hugo Montenegro, Cannonball Adderley, Nancy Wilson, Grant Green, Lou Rawls, Eroll Garner, Dizzy Gillespie, Franco Ambrosetti & Don Sebesky, Carly Simon, Mark Murphy (Living Room), Sarah Vaughan (including Copacabana aka Exclusivamente Brasil), Antonio Carlos Jobim (one track, Double Rainbow aka Children's Games on Terra Brasilis), and even Joao Gilberto (The Best Of Two Worlds and Amoroso.) The list goes on and on.

After that meeting, of course he would recorded at least more 200 albums (from Peggy Lee to Manhattan Transfer, from Jessye Norman to Grover Washington, Jr.) starting with Sarah Vaughan's Copacabana aka Exclusivamente Brasil, cut one week later!

And I treasure specially his playing on fantastic symphonic albums from the Jazz Meets The Symphony series and one great DVD with Lalo Schifrin, the LaserDisc with Simon & Garfunkel live at Central Park, the haunting interview for the brilliant documentary movie about Gary McFarland that was issued on DVD, and the historic concert with Miles Davis & Quincy Jones playing Gil Evans' charts at Montreux Jazz Festival in 1991.

What a HUGE legacy!