From the archives
Geoffrey Smith on the drummer Buddy Rich, who led his big band with ferocious rhythmic tautness
Sometimes the archives strike a particular personal chord. In 1979, I spent a memorable few days trailing Buddy Rich and his big band around southern England for a magazine feature. As a one-time jazz drummer, this extended encounter with a drum legend was a dream assignment, a chance to immerse myself in the fabulous art of a man who’d been a percussion superstar virtually from infancy, when he was a vaudeville headliner billed as ‘Traps the Drum Wonder’. In his 60s, he was still a wonder, his speed and technique leaving audiences and musicians alike amazed.
Though he could play with subtlety and refinement, Rich was most at home driving along a big band, and the high-powered ensemble he formed in 1966 was the true medium for his gifts. A youthful crew, mostly half the leader’s age, they were inspired by his energy and brilliant, razor-sharp attack, and the explosive effect of Buddy and his band comes pouring out in a historic disc on the Gearbox label. Just in Time: The Final Recording (Gearbox GB 1556CD) is the last recording Buddy made, in November 1986, less than six months before his death. And the setting is historic too: Ronnie Scott’s in London, one of Buddy’s favourite haunts, as Ronnie himself was one of the drummer’s great pals, with a similarly barbed sense of humour. During my Rich pilgrimage, when asked when he’d be returning to England, Buddy said, ‘I think we’ll be coming back at Christmas, cos Ronnie Scott said it’d be a cold day before he hired my band again.’
But on Just in Time, all is warmth, exuberance and creative fire. The band are in top form, cutting the intricate charts with ease and panache, powered along by Buddy’s incisive beat and embellishments. The soloists are excellent as well, especially the 20-year-old trumpeter Greg Gisbert, who in the years since 1986 has built a starry career with the likes of the doyenne of contemporary big-band jazz Maria Schneider.
But throughout the album, the most lustrous star is Buddy Rich, giving a lesson in big-band drums and dazzlement. His most stunning moment is his solo foray on a medley from
Porgy and Bess, an astonishing mix of technical brilliance, imagination and musicality – a fitting swansong for a jazz phenomenon and an immortal.