Buddy Rich | |
|---|---|
 Rich at the Arcadia Ballroom, May 1947 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Bernard Rich |
| Also known as |
|
| Born | (1917-09-30)September 30, 1917 Brooklyn, New York, U.S. |
| Died | April 2, 1987(1987-04-02) (aged 69) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Genres | |
| Occupations |
|
| Instrument | Drums |
| Years active | 1921–1987 |
| Labels | |
Bernard "Buddy"Rich (September 30, 1917 – April 2, 1987)[1] was an Americanjazz drummer, songwriter, conductor, and bandleader. He is considered one of the most influential drummers of all time.[2]
Rich was born and raised inBrooklyn,New York, United States.[1] He discovered his affinity for jazz music at a young age and began drumming at the age of two. He began playing jazz in 1937, working with acts such asBunny Berigan,Artie Shaw,Tommy Dorsey,Count Basie, andHarry James. From 1942 to 1944, Rich served in theU.S. Marines. From 1945 to 1948, he led theBuddy Rich Orchestra.[3] In 1966, he recorded a big-band style arrangement of songs fromWest Side Story. He found lasting success in 1966[citation needed] with the formation of theBuddy Rich Big Band, also billed as theBuddy Rich Band andThe Big Band Machine.
Rich was known for his virtuoso technique, power, and speed.[4] He was an advocate of thetraditional grip, though he occasionally usedmatched grip when playing thetoms. Despite his commercial success and musical talent, Rich never learned how to readsheet music, preferring to listen to the drum parts played in rehearsal by whoever was his drum roadie at the time and relying on his excellent memory.
Rich was born inSheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, New York, toJewish parents Bess Skolnik and Robert Rich, both Americanvaudevillians.[5]: 6 At 18 months old, he became part of his parents' vaudeville act, dressed in a sailor suit playing an arrangement of "The Stars and Stripes Forever" behind a large bass and snare drum - an act which concluded with him emerging from behind the drums tap-dancing to thunderous applause. Rich would sneak into jazz clubs at an age when he looked old enough to sit on the drum set, and fell in love with jazz.[6] By the age of 4, he was headlining Broadway, billed as "Baby Traps the Drum Wonder." In his teens, he led a band and toured in the U.S. and Australia. By the age of 15, he had become the second-highest-paid child entertainer behindJackie Coogan during the 1930s.[7]
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His jazz career began in 1937 with clarinetistJoe Marsala. He became a member of the big bands led byBunny Berigan andArtie Shaw.[4][7] Rich considered himself a featured performer and disliked bandleaders. He claimed that the musicians "hardly look at the bandleader," and that the drummer is the real "quarterback" of the band.[8] For Shaw's part, he felt that Rich didn't follow direction and finally asked the drummer, "Who are you playing for? Me, yourself, who?" Rich admitted that he played for himself and his audience, whereupon Shaw suggested that Rich should accept the offer he had received fromTommy Dorsey: "I think you'd be happier there." Rich took Shaw's advice as a dismissal.
When Rich was home from touring with Shaw, he gave drum lessons to a 14-year-oldMel Brooks for six months.[9] At 21, he participated in his first major recording with theVic Schoen Orchestra who backed theAndrews Sisters.[10]
In 1939 Rich joined the Dorsey band, leaving in 1942 to join the United States Marine Corps, in which he served as aJudo instructor and never saw combat. He was discharged in 1944 for medical reasons.[11] After leaving the Marines, he returned to the Dorsey band. In 1946, with financial support from Frank Sinatra, he formed a band and continued to lead bands intermittently until the early 1950s.[5]: 92, 95 [12]
Following the war, Rich formed his own big band, which often played at the Apollo Theater and featured backing vocals fromFrank Sinatra.[13]
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In addition to playing with Tommy Dorsey (1939–1942, 1945, 1954–1955), Rich played withBenny Carter (1942),Harry James (1953–1962, 1964, 1965),Les Brown,Charlie Ventura,Jazz at the Philharmonic, andCharlie Parker (Bird and Diz, 1950).
In 1956, Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich recorded the collaboration album titledKrupa and Rich, which featured the song "Bernie's Tune", in which they traded drum solos for a total of six minutes.[14]
In 1959 Buddy Rich and Max Roach recordedRich versus Roach with their respective bands of the time.
From 1966 until his death, he led successful big bands in an era when their popularity had waned. He continued to play clubs but stated in interviews that the majority of his band's performances were at high schools, colleges, and universities rather than clubs. He was a session drummer for many recordings, where his playing was often less prominent than in his big-band performances. Especially notable were sessions forElla Fitzgerald andLouis Armstrong, and theOscar Peterson trio with bassistRay Brown and guitaristHerb Ellis.[15] In 1968, Rich collaborated with the Indiantabla playerUstad Alla Rakha on the albumRich à la Rakha.
He performed a big-band arrangement of a medley fromWest Side Story that was released on the 1966 albumSwingin' New Big Band. The "West Side Story Medley", arranged by Bill Reddie, highlighted Rich's ability to blend his drumming into the band. Rich received the West Side Story arrangement ofLeonard Bernstein's melodies from themusical in the mid-1960s; he found the music quite challenging and it took him almost a month of constant rehearsal to perfect. It later became a staple of his live performances. A six-minute performance of "Prologue/Jet Song" from the suite, performed during Frank Sinatra's portion of theConcert for the Americas on August 20, 1982, is on the DVD "Frank Sinatra: Concert for the Americas".[16] In 2002, a DVD was released calledThe Lost West Side Story Tapes that captured a 1985 performance of this along with other numbers.[17]
A live recording of the "Channel One Suite" is on the albumMercy, Mercy recorded atCaesars Palace in 1968. The album was acclaimed as the "finest all-round recording by Buddy Rich's big band".[18]
In the 1950s, Rich was a frequent guest onThe Steve Allen Show and other television variety shows, most notably onThe Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. Rich andCarson were lifelong friends, and Carson was himself a drum enthusiast.[19][20][21]
In 1973 PBS broadcast and syndicated Rich's February 6, 1973, performance at the Top of the Plaza inRochester, New York. It was the first time thousands of drummers were exposed to Buddy in a full-length concert setting, and many drummers continue to name this program as a prime influence on their own playing.[22] One of his most widely seen television performances was in a 1981 episode ofThe Muppet Show in which he engaged Muppet drummerAnimal (performed byFrank Oz, drums played byRonnie Verrell) in a drum battle.[23] Rich's famous televised drum battles also includedGene Krupa,Ed Shaughnessy andLouie Bellson.[23] Perhaps his most viewed television appearance was onHere's Lucy in the 1970 episode "Lucy And The Drum Contest".[24]
Rich citedGene Krupa,Jo Jones,Chick Webb,Ray McKinley,Ray Bauduc, andSid Catlett as influences.[25]
He usually held his sticks with thetraditional grip. He used thematched grip when playingfloor toms around the drum set while performing cross-stickings (crossing arm over arm), which was one of his party tricks, often leading to loud cheers from the audience. Another technique he used to impress was the stick-trick, a fast roll performed by slapping two drumsticks together in a circular motion using "taps" or single-stroke stickings. He often used contrasting techniques to keep long drum solos from getting mundane. Aside from his energetic, explosive displays, he would go into quieter passages.
One passage he would use in most solos started with a simple single-stroke roll on thesnare drum picking up speed and power, then slowly moving his sticks closer to the rim as he got quieter, and eventually playing on the rim itself while still maintaining speed. Then he would reverse the effect and slowly move towards the center of the snare while increasing power. Though well known as a powerful drummer, he did usebrushes. On the albumThe Lionel Hampton Art Tatum Buddy Rich Trio (1955) he played with brushes almost exclusively.
In 1942, Rich andHenry Adler wroteBuddy Rich's Modern Interpretation of Snare Drum Rudiments, which is regarded as one of the more popular snaredrum rudiment books.[26] Adler met Rich through a former student. Adler said, "The kid told me he played better than Krupa. Buddy was only in his teens at the time and his friend was my first pupil. Buddy played and I watched his hands. Well, he knocked me right out. He did everything I wanted to do, and he did it with such ease. When I met his folks, I asked them who his teacher was. 'He never studied', they told me. That made me feel very good. I realized that it was something physical, not only mental, that you had to have."[27]
Adler denied the rumor that he taught Rich how to play. "Sure, he studied with me, but he didn't come to me to learn how to hold the drumsticks. I set out to teach Buddy to read. He'd take six lessons, go on the road for six weeks and come back. He didn't practice. He couldn't, because wherever the guy went, he was followed around by admiring drummers. He didn't have time to practice. ...Tommy Dorsey wanted Buddy to write a book and he told him to get in touch with me. I did the book and Tommy wrote the foreword. Technically, I was Buddy's teacher, but I came along after he had already acquired his technique."[27]
When asked if Rich could read music,Bobby Shew, lead trumpeter in Rich's mid-1960s big band replied, "No. He'd always have a drummer there during rehearsals to read and play the parts initially on new arrangements. Buddy would just sit in the empty audience seats in the afternoon and listen to the band. ... He'd only have to listen to a chart once and he'd have it memorized. We'd run through it and he'd know exactly how it went, how many measures it ran and what he'd have to do to drive it."[28]
In aModern Drummer interview, Rich had this to say about practicing: "I don't put much emphasis on practice anyhow. I think it's a fallacy to believe that the more you practice, the better you become. You can only get better by playing. You can sit in a basement with a set of drums and practice rudiments all day long, but if you don't play with a band, you won't learn style, technique, and taste, and you won't learn how to play for a band and with a band. It's like getting a job, any kind of job, it's an opportunity to develop. And practice, besides that, is boring. I know teachers who tell their students to practice three, four, six hours a day. If you can't get what you want after an hour of practice, you're not going to get it in four days."[29]
In the same article, Rich also discourages playing drums with one's bare hands. When asked if he could do such a thing, he replied, "Yes, but why destroy your hands? I could think of a hundred ways to use my hands rather than to break them on the rim of a drum."[29]
Rich was married to Marie Allison, a dancer and showgirl, on April 24, 1953, until his death in 1987. They had a daughter in 1954, Cathy, who later became a vocalist and carried on her father's band. Rich was also cousin of actorJonathan Haze.
Rich lived inWilliamsburg, Brooklyn.[30]
In March 1968 he was convicted of failing to report $50,000 of income in 1961 and was given five years'probation, fined $2,500 and ordered to pay theIRS $40,000. In July 1969, they placed atax lien on him for $141,606 for back taxes. Rich filed for bankruptcy the next month, and the IRS seized his home in Las Vegas.[31]
Rich was notoriously short-tempered. SingerDusty Springfield slapped him after several days of "putting up with Rich's insults and show-biz sabotage".[32] He had a rivalry withFrank Sinatra which sometimes ended in brawls when both were members of Tommy Dorsey's band. Nevertheless, they remained lifelong friends, and Sinatra delivered a eulogy at Rich's funeral in 1987.[33] In 1983, Rich underwent quadruple bypass surgery, and was often visited by Sinatra in the hospital.[34]Billy Cobham said that he met Rich in a club as a youth asking him to sign his snare drum, but Rich "dropped it down the stairs".[35]
Rich held a black belt in karate, which proved beneficial to him, his temper, and his health.[36]
According to bassistBill Crow, Rich reacted strongly toMax Roach's increasing popularity when he was the drummer forCharlie Parker, especially when a jazz critic stated Roach had topped Rich as the world's greatest drummer.[37] DrummerJohn JR Robinson told Crow he was with Roach when Rich drove by with a beautiful woman seated next to him and yelled, "Hey, Max! Top this!"[37] Nonetheless, the two worked together on the 1959 albumRich Versus Roach, and Roach appeared on the 1994 Rich tribute albumBurning for Buddy.
Rich's temper was documented in a series of secret recordings made on tour buses and in dressing rooms by pianistLee Musiker, who concealed a compact tape recorder in his clothing while on tour with Rich in the early 1980s.[38] On one recording, Rich threatens to fire trombonistDave Panichi for having a beard.[39] Although he threatened many times to fire members of his band, he seldom did so and, for the most part, praised his musicians in television and print interviews. The day before his death, April 1, 1987, Rich was visited byMel Tormé, who claimed that one of Rich's last requests was to hear the tapes of his angry outbursts. Tormé was working on an authorized biography of Rich and included excerpts of the tapes in the book, but he never played the tapes for Rich.[5]: 215
In Mel Tormé's biography of Rich, he notes that while Rich was tough on his band, there were a few instances when some members stood up to him. One departing musician told Rich, "I came to this band to play music, not join theMarines!" Another instance was when anAustralian musician loudly debated with Buddy in the bus.[40]
Tormé also was familiar with Buddy's dislike ofrock, but he states that "when some of these rock drummers came to greet Buddy after a show, he was always charming and polite. And he never, at least in my presence, disparaged them in any way."[41] Rich also held a low opinion ofcountry music, which he considered "a giant step backwards", and opined that "the young people ... need to realize that there's a lot more to music than just playing one chord or two chords".[42] During medical therapy following a brain tumor operation, a nurse inquiring about drug allergies asked Rich whether there was anything he couldn't take. He replied, "Yes, country and western music."[43]
Rich toured and performed until the end of his life. In early March 1987, he was touring in New York when he was hospitalized after suffering a paralysis on his left side that physicians believed had been caused by a stroke. He was transferred to California to UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles for tests, where doctors discovered and removed a brain tumor on March 16. He was discharged a week later, but continued to receive daily chemotherapy treatments at the hospital. On April 2, 1987, he died of unexpected respiratory and cardiac failure after a treatment related to the malignant brain tumor.[44] His wife Marie and daughter Cathy buried him inWestwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.[45] He was 69.
Since Rich's death, a number of memorial concerts have been held. In 1994, the Rich tribute albumBurning for Buddy: A Tribute to the Music of Buddy Rich was released. Produced byRush drummer/lyricistNeil Peart, the album features performances of Rich staples by a number of jazz and rock drummers such asJoe Morello,Steve Gadd,Max Roach,Billy Cobham,Dave Weckl,Simon Phillips,Steve Smith and Peart, accompanied by the Buddy Rich Big Band. Asecond volume was issued in 1997.Phil Collins was featured in a DVD tribute organized by Rich's daughter,A Salute to Buddy Rich, which included Steve Smith andDennis Chambers.[46]
Rich's technique, including speed, smooth execution and precision, is one of the most coveted in drumming and has become a common standard.Gene Krupa described him as "the greatest drummer ever to have drawn breath".[33]Roger Taylor, drummer ofQueen, acknowledged Rich as the best drummer he ever saw for sheer technique.[47]Blink-182 drummerTravis Barker has credited Rich as the greatest drummer of all time.[48]
Rich's influence extends from jazz to rock music, including drummers such asDave Weckl,[49]Vinnie Colaiuta,[50]Adam Nussbaum,[51]Simon Phillips,[52]Hal Blaine,[53]John Bonham,[54]Carl Palmer,[55]Ian Paice,[56]Gregg Bissonette,[57]Jojo Mayer,[58]Tré Cool,[59]Bill Ward,[60] andMax Weinberg.[61]Phil Collins stopped using twobass drums and started playing thehi-hat after reading Rich's opinion on the importance of the hi-hat.[62]
In 1980, Rich was awarded an honorary doctorate of music fromBerklee College of Music.[63]
In 1986, a year before his death, Rich was elected into the Percussive Arts Society Hall of Fame in the category of bandleader, and drum set player.[64]
On September 30, 2017, Rich was honored with a Star on thePalm Springs Walk of Stars.[65]
In 2016, readers ofRolling Stone magazine ranked Rich No. 15 in their list of the 100 Greatest Drummers of all time.[66] In a readers' poll in 2011, he ranked No. 6.[67]
Rich was known as a performer and endorser ofLudwig,Slingerland, andRogers drums.[68] While endorsing Slingerland in the '60s and '70s, Rich sometimes used aFibes snare drum together with a Slingerland drum kit.[69] He switched exclusively toLudwig in the late 1970s through the early 1980s. While recovering from a heart attack in 1983, Rich was presented with a 1940s-vintage Slingerland Radio King set, refurbished by Joe MacSweeney of Eames Drums,[70] which he used until his death in 1987. Rich's typical setup included a 14"×24"bass drum, a 9"×13" mountedtom, two 16"×16"floor toms (with the second tom usually serving as a towel holder), and a 5.5"×14"snare drum. Hiscymbals were typicallyAvedis Zildjian: 14" New Beathi-hats, 20" mediumride, 8"splash, two 18"crashes (thin and medium-thin).[71] Sometimes a 6" splash and later a 22"swish.[72] He also usedRemo drumheads and Slingerland drumsticks. He also had his own signature sticks. He used Ludwig Speed King or a Rogers bass drum pedal at various times in his career.
