I was drivin to the local pharmacy this weekend to refill a scrip and heard an interesting story on NPR. One or two DJ's got together to create a donation effort (link below) to help give something back to the last living member (I believe) of "The Winstons" (the 1960's band that recorded "Amen Brother," where the EPIC "Amen Break" had originated). To my utter amazement and severe disgust, the actual drummer that played what is considered possibly THE most influential several-bar song-sample, died homeless and penniless.

I must say that this frickn' break changed my life and is THE #1 thing that even got me into electronic music in the first place due to my percussion background (well... technically the very first song that peaked ANY interest at all in club/dance genres was Jonny L's "Tychonic Cycle" which starts off with a straight retarded reorganization of another legendary drum-break... link to this song below as well). By this point it is obvious that my interests began with Drum n' Bass... and NOTHING BUT Dn'B for like 10 years... well, as far as "club/dance" genre music was concerned (I had of course been listening to Indie-Rock, various forms of jazz/fusion/avante-garde/ambient/shoegazer/whatever-the-fuck-else as well for quite some time, but...). From that point I started hearing the Amen's in various songs and IMMEDIATELY became ADDICTED to them. This is around 1999, and to this very day I LOVE IT JUST AS MUCH AS EVER!! and the chills that I get EVERYTIME I have EVER listened to it, are just as strong today as they were in '99.

I remember goin' through records at the local record shop each week, and the moment I heard Amen's in a song it IMMEDIATELY went to the "Buy" pile... whether or not I liked the bassline, vocals (if there were vocals) or whatever.




Link to fund and details surrounding this movement along with history on how the news of the break's popularity finally reached song writer:

http://www.gofundme.com/amenbrother


Jonny L's "Tychonic Cycle":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YM-HNC8J7T4


Also for all you Drum n' Bass heads... all the famous drum breaks from old recordings found ALL OVER the entire history of the DnB genre are freely available at the link below... all original recording clips... screw the infinite multitude of recycled edits found in "Samplepacks"... with Drum n' Bass, I ALWAYS go straight to the source... its the only genre that I REFUSE to use drum samplepacks with.

Enjoy!!!

http://junglebreaks.co.uk (break used in "Tychonic Cycle" there too )

 

donated...

 

nice work!!

can't believe only one reply...

 

That is truly an unfortunate end to "ones" work that "so many" have benefited from on all levels
I thank you dim_triad for this info & when I can I too will donate what I can for this cause

 

yeah man... its unbelievable. That drummer bein homeless and broke. He's the one that deserved the money the most.

I mean, the dude who "wrote" the song is still alive... but, did he actually write that drum solo too?.. I expect he arranged for a solo probably, but let the drummer just "do his thing." Although, perhaps there were many takes and variations... and the writer chose that one
either way, 'tis very sad.

thanx for the reply EMU

 

Big Ups for sharing! I just donated and shared.

I saw a short video on this story a few years ago when I started getting into sampling pretty heavy. It's nice that someone is taking a step towards rectifying this tragedy. Music is nothing without the love. It is imperative that we show gratitude to those that came before us.

Peace.