Buddy Rich

[Fred Dabney]

<I took a look at the buddyrich.com website -- run by his
daughter. It's
plain to see that his daughter inherited her dad's modesty.... ;-)

While Rich was unquestionably one of jazz's great drummers, IMO
his
talent was greatly compromised by not only his attitude toward his
musicians, but his rather narrow view of what constituted jazz.
In his
world, big band was it.

Roger>

A story about Rich I always found amusing came from the days
in Tommy Dorsey's band.

A new reedman, just joining the band during a performance
noticed Buddy, sitting back with his arms crossed, drum
sticks in his hands. It was a ballad the band was playing,
(Dorsey was famous for his ballad work) and the new guy,
surprised, asked Buddy why he wasn't playing.

Truculently he responded "I don't do ballads, man!"

Fred D.

[RB]

In article <00c201c18026$ac9b3550$0200000a@win2kmess>,
fda...@NMSU.EDU (Fred Dabney) wrote:

> Truculently he responded "I don't do ballads, man!"

What, no "colorful" adjectives? Oh, I guess he had to wait till he
fronted his own band to do that.... the guy swore like a sailor....

[Joe Grandwilliams]

Buddy was drummer, to many he was "The Drummer." Maybe he swore like a sailor, but he swung like Tarzan!

[Joe Grandwilliams]

There's a million, well maybe half a million Buddy stories. Bassist Joel Bartolomo (sp?) tells of a time Buddy was trying to get the band tuned. He turned to Joel and asked him to give him an A. Joel did his best Fonzie and let out an 'Aayyyyy'. Buddy supposedly fired him before the laughter stopped. There is a commercial running on TV where a golfer throws all his clubs in a water hazard. A few minutes later he returns, wades out and retrieves his bag. He then takes his car keys out of a side pocket and throws the bag in again. Reportedly this is actually based on a true incident with Buddy as the golfer.
Supposedly when he went into the hospital for his bypass surgery, a nurse was taking his medical history. She asked if he had any allergies and he replied "Country and Western." He was a character and an artist, sort of the Keith Moon of jazz. The world will go a long time before another one quite like him comes around again.

Roger>

Truculently he responded "I don't do ballads, man!"

Fred D.

[Steve Harnar]

In a message dated 12/8/01 11:14:52 PM Central Standard Time,
jgrandw...@msn.com writes:

> Supposedly when he went into the hospital for his bypass surgery, a nurse
> was taking his medical history. She asked if he had any allergies and he
> replied "Country and Western." He was a character and an artist, sort of
> the Keith Moon of jazz. The world will go a long time before another one
> quite like him comes around again.
>
>

I remember Buddy once on the tonight show, when Johnny asked him if he could
twirl his stick and toss it in the air and catch it like the drummer for the
Rollin Stones he said "No...but he (the Stones drummer) can't play".

[Terry Groff]

Back in '84 I got a chance to see Sinatra in concert with the Buddy Rich
Orchestra. I was so psyched about finally getting to see two legends
together. Well. it turned out that it was indeed the BR Orchestra, sans
Buddy. FS did a 45 min set and no encore. I think Buddy was already getting
ill at that time and apparently wasn't doing much touring. I was
disappointed.

Terry

"Steve Harnar" <Chefo...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:c9.19da9ce...@aol.com...

[Scott]

I suppose this is the right time to trot out the old Buddy Rich joke, which
I heard from a saxaphone player…

The phone rings at Buddy Rich's house. His widow answers, and the guy on
the other end says, "Hi, I'm a horn player who used to play with Buddy. Is
he in?" Buddy's widow hesitates for a second, then explains, "No, haven't
you heard? Buddy died." A week later the phone rings again, and again
Buddy's widow answers. The same guy says, "Hi, I used to play with Buddy.
Can I speak with him?" Once again Buddy's widow says, "I'm sorry, Buddy's
dead." Another week goes by, the phone rings again, and the same guy asks
to speak with Buddy. Buddy's widow says, "Why do you keep calling? I've
told you, Buddy's dead." The horn player replies, "I know, but I just enjoy
hearing it."

[RB]

In article <OE106dyZSdA6k...@hotmail.com>,
jgrandw...@MSN.COM (Joe Grandwilliams) wrote:

>
> Supposedly when he went into the hospital for his bypass surgery, a nurse was
> taking his medical history. She asked if he had any allergies and he replied
> "Country and Western." He was a character and an artist, sort of the Keith
> Moon of jazz.

Great story! Good to hear the man had a sense of humor, to offset how
surly he was in the name of perfectionism....

[Joe Grandwilliams]

Listen, he wasn't my favorite drummer, but that was personal taste and probably a bit jealousy too. However he was a great player, and that can't be denied. He was also pretty courageous. Shortly after his surgery he appeared on the Tonite Show. He was playing a double rack set instead of his trademarked single rack and double floor toms. I later heard he made the appearance to hype his band, he knew he didn't have a whole lot of time and wanted to leave his wife as securely as he could. He couldn't use his regular set up because there was a danger of pulling out stitches. He went up several points in my eyes as a man that night. Just giving the man his due.
JLG

----- Original Message -----
From: RB
Sent: Sunday, December 09, 2001 2:36 PM
To: BLU...@LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU
Subject: Re: Buddy Rich

[Blue Stew]

Yes, they should have played "Golden Days of the Grand Ole Opry" starring
Minnie Pearl, Grandpa Jones, Roy Acuff and String Bean, in his recovery
room...over and over and... Mike M.

-----Original Message-----
From: Blues Music List [mailto:BLU...@LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU]On Behalf Of
RB
Sent: Sunday, December 09, 2001 11:34 AM
To: BLU...@LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU
Subject: Re: Buddy Rich