Recollections: Buddy Rich - Chapter Twelve

Not So Modern Drummer continues to celebrate the legendary Buddy Rich in 2017. Recognizing the 100th anniversary of his birth… Contributing their personal recollections and commentary on Buddy Rich are Billy Arnold, Jason Bittner, Sue Hadjopoulos, and Rick Shlosser… With additional comments by Not So Modern Drummer owner and editor – George Lawrence

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Art prints of famous drummers and drums

We use FineArtAmerica to sell, print, frame, and ship our art for drummers. The link to our gallery at that site is http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/notsomoderndrummer.html  Our first collection is that of Michael DeGruchy Haslam, a Canadian artist who has painted some very cool caricature portraits of famous jazz drummers. He is painting all the time so check back often to see what's new. Other images will be available very soon. In the slide show below are his current paintings available to buy: Philly Joe Jones, Baby Dodds, Elvin Jones, Tony Williams, Kenny Klook Clarke, Gene Krupa, Buddy Rich, Big Sid Catlett, Papa Jo Jones, Miles Davis/Sonny Rollins.

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Recollections: Buddy Rich - Chapter Six

Not So Modern Drummer continues to celebrate the legendary Buddy Rich in 2017, recognizing the 100th anniversary of his birth. Providing their personal commentary on Buddy are: Harry Cangany, Marko Djordjevic, Billy Drummond, Jeff Indyke, and Steve Maxwell.   ".....but, the videos don't even come remotely close to seeing Buddy in person. Johnny Carson (the king of late night) said it best. Johnny was an amateur drummer and loved Buddy. In remembering Buddy, Johnny related a story of how Buddy always cranked it up even higher on nights when other famous drummers were in the audience. He talked about Buddy appearing in a club in LA, and on this particular night there were maybe ten guys in the audience who were well known drummers, and Buddy knew they were there. Johnny said that by the end of Buddy's big solo, it was so completely amazing that these guys were openly crying." - Steve Maxwell.

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Recollections: Buddy Rich - Chapter Five

Buddy. One word says it all. Icon, household name, a celebrity with a comics wit, a virtuoso unequaled.  He was a force of nature to behold.  He commanded the best out of his musicians because every time he sat down behind the kit he was the best in the world. Quite simply, no one drove a big band like he did. Beyond his soul shattering technique, it was just the time feel—the drive that he had that was like nobody else.  His time felt like a cigarette boat with the front end hiked up in the air cruising on the water at a ferocious speed.  At the same time utmost musically always prevailed and he could be just as sensitive too. His astonishing brush playing clearly demonstrated this.

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Buddy Rich - As I Heard Him

I will say this: if Buddy could have read music he may have enjoyed staying in one place and making big money while staying in town (NY or LA) and being the house drummer for one of those late night tv shows. But (lucky for us) he had to move his band around a lot to keep it working all the time. This gave everybody, everywhere a chance to hear and enjoy Buddy Rich. (...and then again he probably wouldn’t have had it any other way)

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