buddy rich

any BR fans out there? man buddy was a huge influnce on me , i rember when i was 13 i went to see him,at the time i thought Neil from rush was the best there was, then my brother told me of some old guy name buddy rich, he said i should go see him .well he came to one of our high schools and i went that night to watch"man was i blown away" i couldn't bleive what i was seeing he had so much command over his drum kit,i didnt no drums could be played that way "he was magic" and he was in his 60s!!!!.he was a master! anyways just wanted to see if any you had any BR stories you wanted to share?

I wasn?t able to list Buddy as a genuine influence until about 8 years ago. (I?ve been playing about 20 years.) It was part of my "natural evolution" as a drummer--sort of an acquired taste. I never really listened to much of his work when I was a kid, and I just accepted the general consensus that he was the best drummer in the world. Anyone who heard of Buddy (non-musicians in particular) would just automatically say "Oh yeah, he's the world's best drummer!" and I bought it.

I needed to prove to myself why he was (or wasn?t) so great. When I was younger, I would hear him play on a record and think to myself, "What's the big deal? It's just a bunch of rolls on the snare drum and the swing pattern on the ride cymbal. His drums don't even sound cool like Dave Weckl's!!" I think that being able to see him on video really opened my eyes (no pun intended!!) If you can?t see how he was doing what he was doing, I think it?s hard to appreciate it fully. For me, it wasn?t until I was able to see him do those one-handed rolls and see those sticks flying around like a pair of hummingbirds that I felt the full impact.

I've got a few "Buddy Tales" that I'll save for later. [img]wink.gif[/img]

I went to see Buddy a few times while I was still in high school. What a mind blower to see this older guy playing with all these younger players and just burning the whole night. It was so inspiring to see him in action. I still can't figure out how he got so much power out of those really light sticks...

I remember the first time I saw the solo on the BRMSC tape ONE (With Dennis and Louie and Greg). Theres an old black and white clip on there that shows some of that super-human technique. Just one of those single stroke rolls where the hands are a blur. I remember being pretty floored by that.
His technique has yet to be rivaled and thats saying something in a world of Virgil's and Vinnie's.

This whole debate about whether or not we will ever see another drummer with Buddy's technique is kind of like debating whether or not someone will break a sports record that seems unbreakable (Maris for home runs, Ripkin's "Iron Man" streak, etc.) I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that I'm not sure how much longer Buddy's technique will be "untouchable." As far as I'm concerned, even in this era of Vinnies and Virgils, Steve Smith has the best chance of reaching that level.

I saw Steve with Vital Info when he came through Chicago this past April, as well as on the "East Meets Jazz" tour in August of 2001 and again with Vital Info in November 2000. I noticed a significant improvement in the level of his playing each time. My jaw just about hit the floor at the most recent gig. He was able to make those sticks do anything he wanted. He had that "hummingbird" thing happening with the sticks and demonstrated tremendous facility around the kit. He seems to be methodically and systematically unlocking Buddy's secrets. I'm not sure anyone will ever reach "Level: Buddy" but he's awfully close. At the April gig, he was even scowling like Buddy! (Now if we could just get him to start chewing out the band...)

MJA61,

It's interesting that you wrote that Steve Smith has appeared to be "unlocking Buddy's secrets". As you guys probably know, Steve has studied with Gruber who was a friend of Buddy's. My understanding is that he's basically teaching Buddy's technique. To me it seems that Steve and other Gruber students (including Weckl and Pert) have taken the Gruber/Rich foundation and pushed beyond it. (I hope that doesn't sound like blasphemy.) Buddy was a genious, but there are things that these other guys are coming up with that Buddy just didn't approach.