Amen break

The Winstons were a soul band from Washington, D.C., who played throughout the southern United States. They were led by Richard Lewis Spencer. In early 1969, the Winstons recorded the single "Color Him Father" in Atlanta. The result was "Amen, Brother", which Spencer said they composed in about 20 minutes. Though "Color Him Father" became a top-10 R&B hit and won a Grammy Award, "Amen, Brother" received little notice. As a mixed-race group, the Winstons struggled to secure bookings and disbanded in 1970. == Drum break ==

At about 1 minute and 26 seconds into "Amen, Brother", the other musicians stop playing and the drummer, Gregory Coleman, performs a four-bar drum break that lasts for seven seconds. For two bars, Coleman plays the previous beat. In the third bar, he delays a snare hit. In the fourth bar, he leaves the first beat empty, then plays a syncopated pattern and an early crash cymbal. The drum break was added to lengthen the track, which had been too short with just the riff. Spencer said he directed the break, but Phil Tolotta, the only other surviving member of the Winstons in 2015, credited it solely to Coleman. == Sampling ==

In the 1980s, with the rise of hip-hop, DJs began using turntables to loop drum breaks from records, which MCs would rap over. It was widely sampled in British dance music in the early 1990s, especially in drum and bass and jungle. The Amen break has been in used in thousands of tracks, making it one of the most widely sampled tracks in history. It became popular as it was easy to manipulate and offered a simple way to create jungle music. The English drummer Tom Skinner cited the appealing "crunch" of the recording quality. Producers have manipulated it by altering its pitch or speed, or re-ordering its components to mimic ghost notes or other effects. ==Royalties==

The copyright owner of "Amen, Brother", including the Amen break, was the Winstons bandleader, Richard Lewis Spencer. The journalist Simon Reynolds likened the situation to "the man who goes to the sperm bank and unknowingly sires hundreds of children". Spencer died in 2020. ==See also==