the drummers of motown

Benny “Papa Zita” Benjamin, Richard “Pistol” Allen and Uriel Jones were the drummers of Motown.  As well, there were percussionists, Jack Ashford and Eddie “Bongo” Brown.  Below is a bio on each drummer (source: www.standingintheshadowsofmotown.com).  In addition, included is an interesting short video from the documentary, “Standing in the Shadows of Motown” which chronicles the story and the music of the musicians of Motown, the Funk Brothers.  In it, drummers Pistol Allen and Uriel Jones and arranger,  producer, and songwriter Paul Riser talk about the great Benny Benjamin, the original Motown drummer.  Pistol also demonstrates the famous pick-ups that each drummer played.  If you are interested in hearing music from Motown, I encourage you to watch the documentary and/or pick up the box set, “Hitsville USA The Motown Singles Collection 1959-1971”.

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William "Benny" Benjamin - The creator of the Motown drumbeat and the most beloved musician at Hitsville, Benny was Motown's first drummer, working with Berry Gordy in 1958. Known for his deft brushwork, latin-influenced grooves, and his explosive drum fills and pickups, Benny's signature drum style defined the Motown groove. Coming out of a big band-jazz background, Benny's beats swung much harder than any of the other R&B and Blues drummers residing in Detroit at the time, and his time was impeccable.

But the same couldn't be said for his promptness. Benny's excuses for often being late to Hitsville's recording sessions are legendary - including one where he claimed to have been sitting on his mother's step with his ex-old lady's boyfriend when someone pulled up in a car and shot him. He further endeared himself to his fellow Motown musicians when - right in front some European distributors Berry Gordy was trying to impress with his new operation - he asked the boss if he could "bum a fin." "The Fuehrer," as Benny referred to him, was not pleased. A lifelong heroin user and alcoholic, Benny's demons eventually caught up with him in 1968 when the ravages of his addictions stilled his drumsticks.

Born: Birmingham, Alabama in the early 1930s (died 1968)
Nicknames: Papa Zita
Musical Influences: Buddy Rich, Tito Puentes
Instruments Played: A studio set comprised of Ludwig, Slingerland, Rogers, and Gretsch components
Greatest Performances: "Shop Around," "Get Ready," "Going To A Go-Go"

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Richard "Pistol" Allen - Noted Detroit bassist Ralphe Armstrong once related how he was playing a gig at a local jazz club when Pistol Allen (wearing only pajamas, a robe, and slippers) busted through the doors of the establishment, threw the drummer off his set, and counted off "Cherokee" at a breakneck tempo: "Man, we were all huffin' and puffin' trying to keep up with him for about ten choruses of the tune and then he just cuts the band, jumps off the stage and runs home," recalled Ralphe. "This fool was probably just sittin' in front of his TV and said to himself, 'I feel like playing,.' So he drives halfway across town, gets it out of his system, and then runs back to the TV. You see, this cat just burns with music."

Recruited into Motown in 1962 by his mentor, Benny Benjamin, Pistol quickly learned he had to adapt his jazz drum style to the music being created down in the Snakepit. Pistol recalls, "Benny advised me, 'Jazz don't work down there. They want it straight with 8th notes and a big backbeat. Just play mm-mm-da, mm-mm-da and keep your mouth shut.'" Pistol listened well. The result was a new Motown drum style that featured a sledgehammer backbeat with a heavy hi-hat that gave the producers a nice variation to what Uriel Jones and Benny were doing. The master of the Beale Street shuffle and the Motown "four on the floor" groove (a snare drum hit on every beat), Pistol was the drummer on most of Holland-Dozier-Holland's hit productions of the '60s.

Born: Memphis, Tennessee in 1932 (died 2002 in Detroit)
Nickname: Pistol
Musical Influences: Benny Benjamin, Max Roach, Buddy Rich
Instruments Played: A studio set comprised of Ludwig, Slingerland, Rogers, and Gretsch components
Greatest Performances: "Heat Wave," "Baby Love," "How Sweet It Is"

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Uriel Jones - After touring with Marvin Gaye and various Motown road shows in the early '60s, Uriel became a Hitsville session player in 1964. Originally expected to be a Benny Benjamin clone (which he mastered as much as any human possibly could), Uriel quickly showed Motown's producers and arrangers that he had something else to offer: he rocked harder than any of the other drummers in the building. Motown arranger Paul Riser explains, "Uriel's drum sound was the most open and laid back and he was the funkiest of the three guys we had. He had a mixed feel and did a lot of different things well."

Uriel was an indispensable component of producer Norman Whitfield's "psychedelic soul" recordings with the Temptations, and Ashford and Simpson's Marvin Gaye-Tammi Terrell duets were all fueled by his slammin' drum grooves. Joined at the hip with Earl Van Dyke for the next three decades, Uriel was the main drummer when the Funk Brothers performed at the Chit Chat club, the Twenty Grand, and the other venues they frequented during Detroit's booming nightlife scene of the '60s.

Born: Detroit, MI in 1934
Nicknames: Possum
Musical Influences: Benny Benjamin, Art Blakey
Instruments Played: A studio set comprised of Ludwig, Slingerland, Rogers, and Gretsch components
Greatest Performances: "Ain't Too Proud To Beg," "Cloud Nine," "Ain't No
Mountain High Enough"

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For more info on “Standing in the Shadows of Motown”, here’s a blurb about the film taken from the website:  www.standingintheshadowsofmotown.com

In 1959, Berry Gordy gathered the best musicians from Detroit's thriving jazz and blues scene to begin cutting songs for his new record company. Over a fourteen year period they were the heartbeat on "My Girl," "Bernadette," I Was Made to Love Her," and every other hit from Motown's Detroit era.

By the end of their phenomenal run, this unheralded group of musicians had played on more number ones hits than the Beach Boys, the Rolling Stones, Elvis and the Beatles combined - which makes them the greatest hit machine in the history of popular music. They called themselves the Funk Brothers.

Forty-one years after they played their first note an a Motown record and three decades since they were all together, the Funk Brothers reunited back in Detroit to play their music and tell their unforgettable story in STANDING IN THE SHADOWS OF MOTOWN.

With the tumultuous sixties as a backdrop, Motown's unsung heroes take the viewer on a compelling journey in time as they trace the evolution of The Motown Sound" from its origins in Detroit to its demise in Los Angeles during the seventies. Through the eyes of the riveting characters who ruled Hitsville's studio by day and the club scene of Detroit by night, we enter a world of unparalleled soul and emotion as the Funk Brothers revisit the sites of their musical roots, triumphs, and eventual heartbreak.

For more than four decades, from the dance floors of the world, to the Detroit riots of 1967, to the war in Vietnam, the music the Funk Brothers created has played a major role in the cultural fabric of all of our lives. STANDING IN THE SHADOWS OF MOTOWN finally puts some faces on that music and introduces these heroic musical figures to the world.