The Grand Master Buddy Rich

You don't know what you're talking about. You're talking about Buddy in late 60's and 70's. The dude started playing professionally in the 30's. He played on an album with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie in 1950. He was a session drummer, too. You probably don't have a turntable, so get some CD's of Buddy Rich and various bands, ensembles, and recordings from 40's and 50's and listen. Greatest? I dunno. I do know he was a hellofalot better than a lot of you folks give him credit for because you only know showman Buddy on The Tonight Show, not session and jazz drummer Buddy from 30's 40's and 50's.

Also full disclosure: I'm biased. I ate pizza with Buddy in early 70's. Really. True story.

All that big band and jazz stuff he played was 5 measures of hi hat and then an accented snare on 4. he was only an amazing soloist and thats it. AND because he was a self marketing whore, we only saw him on every talk show and Carson every week. im sure his contemporaries at the time, Roach, Bellson and those guys could hang with their bands too, buddy was only special as a soloist.
I never get tired of watching videos of his solos, i dont even understand what hes doing.
 
You don't know what you're talking about. You're talking about Buddy in late 60's and 70's. The dude started playing professionally in the 30's. He played on an album with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie in 1950. He was a session drummer, too. You probably don't have a turntable, so get some CD's of Buddy Rich and various bands, ensembles, and recordings from 40's and 50's and listen. Greatest? I dunno. I do know he was a hellofalot better than a lot of you folks give him credit for because you only know showman Buddy on The Tonight Show, not session and jazz drummer Buddy from 30's 40's and 50's.

Also full disclosure: I'm biased. I ate pizza with Buddy in early 70's. Really. True story.

I wouldn't admit eating pizza with that a@%hole. his discussion about how beneath him rock drummers were really turned me off and woke me up to the person. Anyway, i do have a turntable but that music, jazz,big band, again hi hat for 2 min, then an accented snare does nothing for me so i wouldn't waste my money. a give him a ton of credit, i used to think he was way above everyone else, a god, nowadays, guys are just better than he was even in his prime. i don't care who or what he played on, not impressed. i know he played better than me when he was only 4 years old but im not pretending to be in his league, just comparing him to whats out there now.
 
I guess "no-talent" knows more than Peart, Weckl, Bonham, Krupa, etc. His description of jazz says he either hasn't listened or doesn't know how to listen to it.
 
This is the kind of crap that should get people banned from the site. I thought this wasn't supposed to be the kind of forum where people can say any old garbage.

Buddy was equally disrespectful of rock drumming. And truly, there are a number of guys who can, from a sheerly technical standpoint, outplay him today. He was rude and often a jerk. This is just his karma coming back on him.
 
I don't care about any of that, or about your assessment of anyone's abilities. The comment I quoted was offensively uninformed. Doesn't belong on a site for musicians.

I like you and your blog, but Buddy wouldn't have made it one day amongst us humans or "musicians" on any site.
 
I don't know what that means. I don't think people who clearly know NOTHING about music, like the person I quoted below, should be aggressively judging any player's abilities on this site. That's all.

As in, he would be the as absolutist he was and would shit on anyone who didn't agree with his opinion. I only base this off of interviews I've seen of his opinion regarding every style of music aside from jazz or big band. The ban hammer would swing instantly.
 
Obviously I can't speak for the absolute boss. I can only assume that he would be a dick. I still study him and Philly the most. Almost equal parts of Bellson and Krupa as well.
 
For me he's the greatest. But isn't he the best? Not so sure about that.

It's all subjective anyway I guess.
 
For me he's the greatest. But isn't he the best? Not so sure about that.

It's all subjective anyway I guess.

I think we have determined that Buddy was a great drummer. And he is worth studying depending on what kind of music you want to play. And he is amazing to watch and it is great fun watching him play. With Buddy, we need to separate drumming technique and personality. In fact there have been several great drummers and other great musicians that are not good role models. For instance we would be having the same type of discussion if the question was “Is Jim Morrison the greatest rock singer of all time.” Should all rock singers try to emulate Jim Morrison.

My only problem with the original question here is the “of all time” part. If he was the best of all time then there will never ever be a better drummer.
That thought would be kind of depressing.


.
 
I think we have determined that Buddy was a great drummer. And he is worth studying depending on what kind of music you want to play. And he is amazing to watch and it is great fun watching him play. With Buddy, we need to separate drumming technique and personality. In fact there have been several great drummers and other great musicians that are not good role models. For instance we would be having the same type of discussion if the question was “Is Jim Morrison the greatest rock singer of all time.” Should all rock singers try to emulate Jim Morrison.

My only problem with the original question here is the “of all time” part. If he was the best of all time then there will never ever be a better drummer.
That thought would be kind of depressing.


.


I agree. My post included a typo as it should have read "But is he the best?"

He was a phenomenal, absolute force of nature. Quite rightly is still being spoke about and looked up to. I'd recommend any young player, regardless of the style of music they are interested in, checks him out still.

I'd also at the same time recommend they'd check out other Jazz greats (Elvin, Max, Tony, Gene, Art, Philly..etc etc) all of which are from the same time period but offer something completely different to Buddy. Each though just as amazing in their own individual way.

Not getting into the personality stuff though. Not a point on this thread I'm really interested in : )

Another thing (mostly unrelated) I will add is that often non drummers will recommend I check out a drummer they've seen clips of, "a guy called Buddy Rich" . Never fails to raise a chuckle when that occasionally happens.
 
I think we have determined that Buddy was a great drummer. And he is worth studying depending on what kind of music you want to play. And he is amazing to watch and it is great fun watching him play. With Buddy, we need to separate drumming technique and personality. In fact there have been several great drummers and other great musicians that are not good role models. For instance we would be having the same type of discussion if the question was “Is Jim Morrison the greatest rock singer of all time.” Should all rock singers try to emulate Jim Morrison.

My only problem with the original question here is the “of all time” part. If he was the best of all time then there will never ever be a better drummer.
That thought would be kind of depressing.

That's more or less the crux of why I started this thread. It's the "of all time" part. I was never questioning Buddy's greatness, just whether he's ever been surpassed after all these years.

But I agree with some of the responders, in that from everything I've read and heard, it seems that he could be a real ass in person. Does that diminish his drumming skills? No, of course not. But it does seem to tarnish his legacy to some degree.
 
I guess "no-talent" knows more than Peart, Weckl, Bonham, Krupa, etc. His description of jazz says he either hasn't listened or doesn't know how to listen to it.

22 replies since joining in 2010 and this is what you choose to say?i dont know how to listen to German Death Metal either, its called an opinion.

This is the kind of crap that should get people banned from the site. I thought this wasn't supposed to be the kind of forum where people can say any old garbage.

I think if you go far enough East, you will find a country which values your type of thinking. Sounds like you will fit right in, no one there is allowed to express an opinion either. BTW, i personally hate Jazz and Big Band..so what?
 
i personally hate Jazz and Big Band..so what?

I couldn't care less what you like or don't like. And your comments here, Mr. Five Measures Of Hihat, demonstrate that you know NOTHING about music, so your opinions about it are completely worthless. They're not even opinions, they're feelings.

This is a site where actual musicians come to talk about musician things, and where students come to learn. You can't say anything you want and not get corrected.
 
He picked up our tab at Little Tony's Pizzeria on Ventura Blvd in Woodland Hills (LA). It was around 1972 or '73 as I recall. We were all teenagers and were acquainted with him through one of our friends who's dad wrote soundtracks for many TV shows back then (we went to a Hawaii Five-0 soundtrack taping he wrote) and also arranged music for many commercials (Budweiser). He was very nice to us and a lot of fun. He was anything but an ass.

That's more or less the crux of why I started this thread. It's the "of all time" part. I was never questioning Buddy's greatness, just whether he's ever been surpassed after all these years.

But I agree with some of the responders, in that from everything I've read and heard, it seems that he could be a real ass in person. Does that diminish his drumming skills? No, of course not. But it does seem to tarnish his legacy to some degree.
 
Listen to Buddy from 30's 40's 50's playing in small ensembles with the likes of Charlie Parker, or some of his studio session gigs. Five measures of hi-hat wouldn't cut it with those dudes. He was a fantastic player with a great ear for what the rest of musicians were doing around him.

22 replies since joining in 2010 and this is what you choose to say?i dont know how to listen to German Death Metal either, its called an opinion.



I think if you go far enough East, you will find a country which values your type of thinking. Sounds like you will fit right in, no one there is allowed to express an opinion either. BTW, i personally hate Jazz and Big Band..so what?
 
He picked up our tab at Little Tony's Pizzeria on Ventura Blvd in Woodland Hills (LA). It was around 1972 or '73 as I recall. We were all teenagers and were acquainted with him through one of our friends who's dad wrote soundtracks for many TV shows back then (we went to a Hawaii Five-0 soundtrack taping he wrote) and also arranged music for many commercials (Budweiser). He was very nice to us and a lot of fun. He was anything but an ass.

That was nice of him. Clearly he wasn't an ass 24/7; I don't think anyone could, as that would be exhausting (and I did say that he could be an ass, not that he was always one).

But when I think of Buddy Rich, the infamous bus tape always comes to mind.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ia95oiS5LE

And to a much lesser degree, this, where he slams country music and anyone who listens to it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h45vnTXbLb4

I'm no fan of country music, but I'd never publicly slam it like that. That's pretty douchey if you ask me.

Listen to Buddy from 30's 40's 50's playing in small ensembles with the likes of Charlie Parker, or some of his studio session gigs. Five measures of hi-hat wouldn't cut it with those dudes. He was a fantastic player with a great ear for what the rest of musicians were doing around him.

Do you have any specific songs or albums to check out? Links would be best.
 
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