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Gene Krupa
"I don't know if he learned anything from me, but I
certianly learned a lot from him".
Ray Mckinley
"I think Buddy Rich is far and away the greatest
drummer who ever lived".
Stanley Kay
"He was put on earth to play drums"
Joe Morello
"Give him a long drum solo and he'll just blow the
place up".
Ed Thigpen
"Buddy Rich is just incredible. He's a great,
fantastic player. If it can be done on a drum, he can do it.......... I've heard
people say he doesn't swing. I think he swings. I used to practice with the
things he does. I've heard it said he's not subtle. I've heard him be so subtle,
so gentle. This man can play".
Ralph j.Gleason
"Rich is a superb drummer. He has the kind of
technique on drums that Art Tatum had on piano. He can play anything he can
think of with all the speed and dexterity and flexibility necessary".
Jo Jones
"That damn fool knows the instrument".
Bobby Scott
"I remember Gene Krupa once said that Buddy was
'outside of it '. By this he meant, there were drummers and then there was
Buddy".
Mel Torme
"I've heard him in every circumstance. And of all
the drummers I've been around over the years, Buddy Rich is the consummate
genius of the drums. He's like Tazio Nuvolari was with the racing car. he had
complete control".
Mel Lewis
"Buddy has somthing no other drummer had, or will
ever have. I don't know how it came about and I don't think he does either. It
doesn't matter".
Jim Jampin
"Buddy summarizes all that has happend on drums
throughout the history of jazz and popular music".
Grady Tate
"Buddy, Max and Blakey - these people are godlike
to me....... Buddy's the kind of cat that I would pay to listen to and watch.
Just solos, you know. I don't necessarily want to hear him with a band. I've
heard him with a band a thousand times. But just to dig his solos, I'd pay money
and sit down. He's somthing else".
Phil Leshin
"I stood next to Buddy night after night, week
after week, month after month, under good conditions and bad - on theater
stages, in airplane hangers, school gymnasiums, and nightclubs - and heard this
guy play. He never ceased to amaze me, particularly those solos".
George Simon
The more I hear him play, the harder it is to
belive.....It is my feeling that when jazz history is set down, this
tremendously inspiring, swinging drummer will go down, along with Davey Tough,
as the man on his instrument.
Gene Krupa
Truly a remarkable young man and one
for whom I have sincere admiration, musically and other wise. I like the way
Buddy literally dances drums. Of the younger crop, he is, to put it mildly,
outstanding. I suspect a good deal of my profound esteem for him is governed by
the fact that, while he is young and performs refreshingly, there is that
quality of sureness present which denotes absolute control, acquired only by
long and good experience.
Joe Morello
I guess most people think of me as a small-group drummer; so it
was fun to play against type. With small-group stuff, it's interplay that's
crucial. when you're working a big band, it's holding the band together, cuing
the brass that's important. I love it because you can hit the drums a little bit
harder, keep the horses going down the right path. "Drumorello" is a thing that
was written for me way back. It's just a set-up for the drums.Buddy's reputation
as a hothead came from being a perfectionist: He used to argue with Dorsey, and
Tommy was a perfectionist as well. There have been so many stories about him
being a rough guy but he was always a gentleman with me. If we were in the same
town, he'd always call up and invite me over to his gigs. I think the reason he
liked me was because I didn't play like him. There are several guys from my
generation who tried to ape Buddy, doing all the solos and battles. But no one
will ever equal what he did in that style, not the way he played it. These guys
had great facility; but you have to be original to have the spark.
I think I was one of the few guys who
practiced with Buddy. One time in San Francisco, we were at the Shrine
Auditorium and he was in Oakland with Harry james. We went back to the hotel,
and it was late. He'd just got some new cymbals from Zildjian. It was 3 a.m.
"Look at these," he says. Crash, crash, splash! I said, "Hey man, you're going
to get us thrown out of here, Buddy?' "Screw 'em." Then he started pounding out
some beats on the wall, and I'm thinking about jail. He takes out some sticks,
"Whaddya think of these?" and all of a sudden it's 6 a.m. and we're banging out
rolls. It was great. He'd say to me, "What do you think of so-and-so's playing?"
I'd say, "Yeah, he's ok'. Buddy would say "Oh come on, he sounds like he's
rumbling down the staircase." I'd laugh and laugh at his honesty.
Max Roach
{interviwed whilst recording Burnig for
Buddy}
Buddy's band was one of the few left after the demise of the big-band
period. [Count] Basies, Duke [Ellington]'s, Woody [Herman]'s . . . only a few
lasted through the heavy expenses of road travel. They were the only ones making
noise. Plus, that's a great band. So I think we all were involved for the same
reasons out of respect for Buddy's contributions, and what he did for
people.
Buddy and I had plenty of wars together! One of
the most memorable was when I started to win the polls in the magazines, "the
youngster from New York," you know? I was invited to Southern California, and
was escorted by Clark Terry. It was Buddy, Gene Krupa, and Louie Belison. Me,
Dizzy [Gillespie], and Bird [Charlie Parker] were the talk of the town, and I
felt good, really strong. But I knew who I was up against. Buddy was strong that
day, but the guy who took out everybody was Gene. He razzle-dazzled the shit out
of us. Buddy and I were competing with each other, and we learned a real lesson
from Gene that day. Play to the audience. He had them rolling in the aisles. Ha!
It was a lesson in show biz that Buddy never forgot.
He
was more than just a natural, he was a phenomenal technician, too. Shit, he knew
the instrument inside and out. He took some really hip solos. I grew up watching
him develop "Quiet Please." He was one of the guys who helped bring percussion
out to the front. You know the old jokes: "Who's in the band? Three musicians
and a drummer." Some guys really believed that. We had to endure a lot of that
crap. So Buddy's talent, and that of Chick Webb, Gene Krupa, and a few others
turned that around. It's much more than just keeping time for
everybody.
Billy Cobham
{interviwed whilst recording Burnig for
Buddy}
Going into the session, I tried to figure out what was expected,
recall the Buddy Rich concept, think of how he projected his ideas through
music.
Buddy would call upon his
band to reach a certain level that he imagined, and sometimes the band couldn't
provide it. I can see how frustration would set in. But he asked that of
himself, too. And even his own body couldn't always provide that level. The mind
had it, he heard it. But it was physically impossible. You try to do the best
you can, and aim high, knowing that you might not achieve your goal. You aim for
the horizon and figure if you get 500 yards out, you've made it. It's a heck of
a lot better than standing on the shore your whole life. He aimed for things
understanding that they might not be achievable. And he came real
close.
There are people who provided major incentive for me, and Buddy was
one. He played my instrument, I played his instrument. I had a guide in him,
Max, Louie Bellson. They gave me a way to go, a path. These are the kinds of
cats who lead bands whether it's their band or not. They lead by simply playing.
That aggression was an important factor for me enjoying
him.
A drummer wants to sit behind
the band because of practicality It's an effective place to be-giving the band
security while still projecting yourself. But you don't just support the
weaknesses of others. You try to provide an overall musical statement so that
there is no doubt that without what you did, no one would play as effectively on
either an individual basis or as part of the group. You're the spoon that stirs
the soup. That's what Buddy did, and that's what I learned
from
him.
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