Buddy Rich

Bernard "Buddy" Rich (September 30, 1917 – April 2, 1987) was an American jazz drummer, songwriter, conductor, and bandleader. He is considered one of the most influential drummers of all time.

Rich was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, United States. 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 as Bunny Berigan, Artie Shaw, Tommy Dorsey, Count Basie, and Harry James. From 1942 to 1944, Rich served in the U.S. Marines. From 1945 to 1948, he led the Buddy Rich Orchestra. In 1966, he recorded a big-band style arrangement of songs from West Side Story. He found lasting success in 1966 with the formation of the Buddy Rich Big Band, also billed as The Buddy Rich Band and The Big Band Machine.

Rich was known for his virtuoso technique, power, and speed. He was an advocate of the traditional grip, though he occasionally used matched grip when playing the toms. Despite his commercial success and musical talent, Rich never learned how to read sheet music, preferring to listen to the drum parts played in rehearsal by his drum roadie and rely on his memory.

Rich was born in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, New York, to Jewish parents Bess Skolnik and Robert Rich who were both American vaudevillians.: 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.: 11 By the age of four, 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 was earning a weekly salary of $1,000 and was the second-highest-paid child entertainer during the 1930s, behind actor Jackie Coogan. 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.

His jazz career began in 1937 with clarinetist Joe Marsala. He became a member of the big bands led by Bunny Berigan and Artie Shaw. 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. For Shaw's part, he felt that Rich did not 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 from Tommy Dorsey: "I think you'd be happier there." Rich took Shaw's advice as a dismissal.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.