Clyde Stubblefield is a drummer best known for his work with James Brown. He may be the most widely sampled (yet uncompensated) musician in the world - his groove on James Brown's "Funky Drummer" is believed to be the world's most sampled record. Stubblefield's recordings with James Brown are considered to be some of the standard-bearers for funk drumming, including the singles "Cold Sweat," "There Was A Time," "I Got The Feelin'," "Say It Loud - I'm Black and I'm Proud," "Ain't It Funky Now," and "Mother Popcorn," and the album "Sex Machine."

Clyde currently lives in Madison, Wisconsin. In 1995 he played on the self-titled album by the rock band Garbage, led by fellow Madison resident Butch Vig. In recent years Stubblefield has collaborated frequently with another former James Brown drummer, John "Jabo" Starks. As the Funkmasters, they released an album in 2001 called Find The Groove. Starks and Stubblefield also appear on a drumming instructional video.

Clyde has a weekly gig in Madison at the King Club. He plays every Monday night with his Madison band, featuring his long time friend and keyboard/organ player Steve "Doc" Scaggs, and is regularly joined by local MC's, guitar players, sax players, and anyone else he meets at the shows who claims to play. When he invites them to play, they either do or chicken out, but it's always a funky good time. He has been playing there for 20+ years, well before it was called the King Club. Occasionally he is out of town playing a funk festival with Bootsy Collins, Maceo Parker, or Jabo, but if he's in town, he'll be on stage.

Stubblefield can be heard playing jazz on the nationally syndicated public radio show Michael Feldman's Whad'Ya Know?

Nerdcore artist MC Frontalot recorded a tribute to Stubblefield entitled "Good Old Clyde" as one of his first endeavours. Among other things, the song praises Stubblefield's talent and influence, and laments the fact that (despite the extensive sampling of his work by other artists) he remains a virtual unknown to most audiences and is rarely credited by the artists who use his work.

External links

• Drummerworld
• Modern Drummer

Drummers | Funk musicians | African American musicians | James Brown backing band members | People from Wisconsin | Wisconsin musicians