George "Buzzy" Bragg was drummer and singer in '70s funk trio Skull Snaps (until 1970 known as The Diplomats). The name of George Bragg may not ring a bell, but his drum breaks have been sampled over 400 times on various hip hop records.
The Skull Snaps song It's a New Day, released in 1973 on their self-titled album, opens with a sick two-measure drum break that is one of the most-sampled loops in history, on par with Funky Drummer or Get Out of My Life Woman for example.
By early 1973, the Skull Snaps had two weeks of recording time booked at the newly built Venture Sounds studio in Sommerville, New Jersey. "The Skull Snaps were the first band to ever record at Venture, and also the first band I ever recorded", remembers Skull Snaps engineer and mixer Ed Stasium, now an industry veteran who has put his stamp on albums by the Ramones, Talking Heads, Mick Jagger, and Living Color. "To be honest, I had absolutely no clue what I was doing. I was just learning how to engineer. I wasnt even getting paid at the time. I was an intern kind of guy, collecting unemployment. I think I did a pretty good job for not knowing shit. But there was a lot of sweaty palms going on."
The vicious compression is hip-hop pre-hip-hop. Listen to how the hi-hat jumps out when played alone. Its sounds like Bragg is playing that way, but the compressor is squashing the hat down when he hits the kick or snare. Now drummers imitate that sound live.
In 1989, hip-hop artist Stezo first sampled the opening drums from It's a New Day on his work titled, It's My Turn. Since then, the now-familiar opening drum pattern of It's a New Day can be heard on songs by well-known acts such as Ol' Dirty Bastard, Das EFX, Ice-T, DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince, Gangstarr, Eric B. & Rakim, Digable Planets, Kruder & Dorfmeister, Method Man, DJ Shadow, DJ Sppoky, Onyx, The Prodigy, Public Enemy and many others, many of whom sampled the drum pattern directly from the Stezo track, as he let the sample run naked.
Neither George Bragg nor his bandmates ever saw a dime from that Charly bootleg, nor from the subsequent bootlegs-nor from all the samples. The reason the record became a collectors item instead of a giant hit was because record label GSF closed their doors on it, claims producer George Kerr. Skull Snaps disbanded and practically vanished without a trace... George Bragg contined drumming with Willie Wright, and his own George Bragg Band.
George died in 2007. He was laid to rest on June 18th.
Factoid: George "Buzzy" Bragg played with Jimi Hendrix in 1965.
