Grady Tate

Grady Tate earned acclaim first as a peerless studio drummer whose rim-shot technique could lock in or nudge a groove with equal precision. His supple and agile baritone, however, remained far less celebrated than his percussion work, even though he had begun singing publicly at age four in Durham, North Carolina churches and schools. That early interest lapsed when his voice changed at twelve. While serving in the Air Force from 1951 to 1955 he acquired the essentials of jazz drumming and received his first vocal arrangements from Bill Berry. After leaving the service he enrolled at North Carolina College to study psychology, literature, and theater, then relocated to Washington, D.C. in 1959, where he taught high school and performed with Wild Bill Davis.

In 1963 he settled in New York and joined the Quincy Jones orchestra, quickly establishing himself as a first-call session drummer. Producer Creed Taylor made him the preferred timekeeper for numerous dates, including Jimmy Smith’s 1964 album The Cat and Wes Montgomery’s 1965 release Bumpin’. His sticks and brushes also appear on recordings by Nat Adderley, Stan Getz, Tony Bennett, Kenny Burrell, Ella Fitzgerald, Benny Goodman, Roland Kirk, Count Basie, Oscar Peterson, Duke Ellington, J.J. Johnson, Kai Winding, and scores of others.

Gary McFarland, impressed by Tate’s singing, produced several vocal albums for the short-lived Skye label, the first being 1968’s Windmills of My Mind. Additional vocal projects followed on Buddah, Janus, Impulse!, and various Japanese imprints, yet none elevated his profile as a vocalist to match his reputation behind the drums. Throughout those years he continued contributing to sessions with Ron Carter, Aretha Franklin, Roberta Flack, Gato Barbieri, and additional jazz and soul figures, while his voice supplied several tracks for the Schoolhouse Rock! educational cartoons.

Although he issued no solo records during the 1980s, Tate returned to education as a faculty member at Howard University and remained in constant demand as a sideman, working again with Jimmy Smith as well as Helen Merrill, Teresa Brewer, and Simon & Garfunkel. His distinctive drumming patterns figured prominently on Angelo Badalamenti’s score for David Lynch’s Twin Peaks.

Tate resumed recording under his own name with the all-vocal 1991 Milestone album TNT, whose drumming was supplied by Dennis Mackrel, who had absorbed many of Tate’s patterns. Body and Soul appeared the following year, and Feeling Free came out in 1999. Further well-received releases included 2003’s All Love with Kenny Barron and 2006’s From the Heart: Songs Sung Live at the Blue Note. Tate’s drumming returned to the Twin Peaks franchise on the soundtrack for David Lynch’s Twin Peaks: The Return. He died at his home on Manhattan’s Upper East Side on October 8, 2017, at the age of 85.