The Grand Master Buddy Rich

Re: If you ever dreamed of playing in Buddy Rich's band, this may change that!

this clip has been around forever....


did you know that this clip is the basis for a seinfeld episode?
 
Re: If you ever dreamed of playing in Buddy Rich's band, this may change that!

jangus said:
I dont think its about respect. I think its about getting the job done and getting a paycheck. If I was in his band I wouldnt mind the yelling as long as I got paid. If you cant take a little verbal abuse you should go back to elementary school.
yeah you make a good point but if u call saying the f word 132 a little verbal abuse then i d hate to get on your bad side....
 
Re: If you ever dreamed of playing in Buddy Rich's band, this may change that!

I've heard about Buddy's attitude before. It doesn't really surprise me, to be honest. Musicians with monster egos is nothing new.
 
Re: If you ever dreamed of playing in Buddy Rich's band, this may change that!

I remember from my several readings of Traps, The Drum Wonder that Buddy just wanted everyone to be giving as much or more to the music than he was. And, If he felt that they werent, he was going to lay into them. It ws expected.

Personally, I would still love the chance to play with a band like that (even though they would chew me up and spit me out).
 
Re: If you ever dreamed of playing in Buddy Rich's band, this may change that!

I think that was hilariously funny, and I'm sure some of his Band members were laughing pretty hard too.

Being on the road all the time is beyond stressfull.

Gotta Toughen Up!

Dap.
 
Re: If you ever dreamed of playing in Buddy Rich's band, this may change that!

foursticks said:
yeah you make a good point but if u call saying the f word 132 a little verbal abuse then i d hate to get on your bad side....

HA.


What Seinfeld episode? I never heard anything like that.
 
Re: If you ever dreamed of playing in Buddy Rich's band, this may change that!

I dunno, my dad was a lot like Buddy and if anything after awhile that sort of thing only leaves people feeling degraded and instinctively rebelling by screwing up more. Sure, an occasional "what the hell's going on fellas, get it together!" is fine but the kind of ranting Buddy did is just not right. That said, he's still a hero of mine and after all the drama, so's my dad.

LG
 
Re: If you ever dreamed of playing in Buddy Rich's band, this may change that!

There's a difference between being a hard taskmaster and being a prick.

Buddy was, reportedly, more of the latter from what I've read. I mean, compare experiences from musicians who worked with Frank Zappa to those who worked with Buddy Rich. Zappa had some of the best contemporary musicians in the world through his band, and he pushed them as hard as he could. Look at where he made Vinnie and Bozzio take their abilities, for a start. But you don't read stories about him doing stuff like this to his band.

Running a band is like running any business - you have staff, you have work they need to do, you have jobs that need to be performed correctly. Having a culture of excellence is one thing, but having a boss who screams at employees and threatens to fire them at random is another. And, IMHO, they're actually rarely the same thing. That's my experience, anyway. My feeling would be that Buddy managed to hold together an amazing band despite his tendency to go off the deep end rather than because of it.
 
Re: If you ever dreamed of playing in Buddy Rich's band, this may change that!

TOMANO said:
Responding to the last post, I'm pretty sure Buddy Rich is not dead due to the fact that he didn't keep a particular band together. I might be wrong, but I'm pretty sure...Yeah, um...yeah...

I wasn't saying his death had anything to do with keeping the band together or anything like that. I just meant that the band was able to survive and play afterwards, because they were such great musicians.
 
Re: If you ever dreamed of playing in Buddy Rich's band, this may change that!

aahznightsky said:
Ummm, that's why buddy is dead and his band has since played with the absolutely biggest names in drums (besides BR)! And the band is really smoking, if you havent noticed. They can play! I wouldn't mind playing with them.


Buddy most likely didn't keep this band, he didn't have the same band his entire career, he replaced people, people left, the band that continues to tour as the "Buddy Rich Band" has probably even changed players here and there. I think this band wasn't a usual line up for Buddy, the whole time he is telling them to go back to Sydney, It may have just been a temporary band, since alot of big bands would do stuff like that. Just bring in a band and they would read the horn charts.

I agree that the current band is a really hot band!
 
Re: If you ever dreamed of playing in Buddy Rich's band, this may change that!

I laugh, every time I hear that stuff....it's EXCELLENT.

The kids working in the industry today, will NEVER know how hard most of the so called 'legends' had it. THEY WORKED damned hard....and they played hard, also.
They had a creed and an ethic, and if you couldn't hack it, you were nothing.
It was survival of the fittest, and that's why so many of the players from that era were as good as they were....the level of competition was so high, if you couldn't perform at it, that's it, you were toast.
Bands and players lived and died on their reputations to deliver. It's a system that could at times be very brutal, but, produced absolute masters.

And you should know, Rich was never harder on anyone, than he was on himself.
 
Re: If you ever dreamed of playing in Buddy Rich's band, this may change that!

Dannar said:
Buddy most likely didn't keep this band, he didn't have the same band his entire career, he replaced people, people left, the band that continues to tour as the "Buddy Rich Band" has probably even changed players here and there. I think this band wasn't a usual line up for Buddy, the whole time he is telling them to go back to Sydney, It may have just been a temporary band, since alot of big bands would do stuff like that. Just bring in a band and they would read the horn charts.

I agree that the current band is a really hot band!


i don't know about the specific band he was yelling at on the link, but just based on the guys we see on the DW videos, you keep on seeing the same horn players and stuff. And then if you watch a few of the Buddy Rich videos, you can see the same players but younger! So whichever band THAT was, they were pretty swell. that's all i was talking 'bout.
 
Re: If you ever dreamed of playing in Buddy Rich's band, this may change that!

Interesting. It almost struck me as though he was mad (but more than mad, just venting) in that he threatens a lot but it does not seem as though he truly believes what he is saying. I mean, I know he was a pro and a perfectionist but it is not like he let bad musicians on the stage with him......I mean, there were try-outs, right?

I was laughing though, at times........."get him off the bus, right now, I don't want him on the ******** band, you ********* ***** ******* ******** playing like children you ********** I mean, I would have probably been scared to death in that spot but still, it's kind of funny now.

Isaacs
 
Re: If you ever dreamed of playing in Buddy Rich's band, this may change that!

And a song someone did regarding these tapes...

Buddy Cute
 
Re: If you ever dreamed of playing in Buddy Rich's band, this may change that!

After watching the biography on Buddy Rich that his daughter pulled together for him, it's easy to see why he freaked out sometimes. It was stressed in the biography how much perfection he demanded from his band on a daily basis. If he played with all of the best in the world, it's no wonder he got frustrated with younger guys who thought they could play but really actually "sucked" in his mind. I know personally there's never such thing as a perfect gig, but I think Buddy defied that saying with an iron fist. Don't forget it takes a hell of a person to be able to keep his band in line like, and a hell of a drummer to do the things he could do!

hahahaha Mlehnertz, that song is freakin wicked, hahahahahaha
 
Buddy Rich's grip..

I've read in some places things along the lines of "if you want to play like Buddy Rich, i.e. develop speed, the gladstone technique is the way to go".

But then you look at Buddy Rich play, and it seems like he grips his sticks very tight and uses mostly wrist. It doesn't look like he uses as much of the rebound as other players like Weckl and Morello do. What's the deal?
 
Re: New Buddy Rich Memorial video

We all would. i figured his whole life he should have gotten plastic surgery or somthin on his face... i know kinda random.
 
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