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Paul Humphrey and The Cool Aid Chemists: Detroit and Funky L.A.
Taken from the album Paul Humphrey and The Cool Aid Chemists on Lizard (1971)

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Now...

With Jay Dee's death last week, Detroit lost one of the great syncopators it had produced in a very long time. A truly original sound. The father of that hard, soulful boom-bap that became his trademark. In fact, it is possible to say that not since Paul Humphrey had a single artist contributed so much to the rythmic identity of Motor City.

Humphrey, like Dilla, was truly a master of his craft. One of the great session drummers of the sixties and seventies, he worked with everyone from Marvin Gaye to Frank Zappa, Bobby Hutcherson to Steely Dan-- the man was everywhere. Motown, Blue Note, it goes on and on. I couldn't access a single comprehensive listing of his studio work online, mainly because I think it would have crashed my computer.

In these tracks you can begin to see why the man was in such high demand. Hard, fast, crisp like a Vermont morning and, my god, what precision! You can almost hear the metranome asking him to take it easy. As a solo artist he only ever hit the charts with one single, "Cool Aid" (taken from the same album as these), before falling back into the relative obscurity as a background player.

He continued doing studio work through the eighties without too much fanfare, but it wasn't until just a few years ago that his eminent talent would be highlighted once again (along with James Gadson and Earl Palmer) by the Keeping Time documentary and accompanying discs.