Benny Benjamin

He idolized Ray Brown.

Uh, Benny Benjamin, who was the original drummer, was a killer jazz drummer.

Uh, Pistol Allen was also one of the drummers.

He was with Sonny Stitt.

So it was either...

Palmer or Blaine or Benny Benjamin or, you know, one of those, you know, there was three in the Funk Brothers and there was two in the Wrecking Crew.

So those were really the drummers that I emulated.

And then I saw Bernard Purdy with King Curtis.

Players who, despite Barry Gore, the strict rules and threats of fines routinely slipped away after hours to record for cash in hand at indie labels like Revelotte.

Chief among them were members of Motown's legendary house band the Funk Brothers, an ensemble featuring bass genius James Jamerson, drummer Benny Benjamin, Jack Ashford on tambourine and vibes and bandleader Earl Von Dyke on keys.

Session logs from these indie dates were rarely kept and wouldn't have featured moonlighting Motown stuff anyhow.

But given the quality of the rhythm section on these records, it is likely that at least some of the Funk Brothers were involved.