Some interesting and rare footage here today of Buddy Rich joking around with Hugh Hefner and a room full of Playboy bunnies:
This particular group is probably my favorite Buddy Rich small group that featured a young Mike Maineri on vibraphone and Sam Most on flute. John Riley hipped me to the album "Blues Caravan" awhile back that features this same group and has become one of my favorite Buddy Rich recordings outside of his more well-known big band work.
Anything and Everything that Buddy Rich did behind a set of drums was masterful. Notice that Buddy always surrounded himself with great musicians. Buddy was a perfectionist and demanded insisted the same from all of his musicians. What amazes me about Buddy is the way he could bolster a big band and drive them like no other drummer could. And then to prove how great he was he could play soft brush works and play so tasty. Its a shame today that drummers concentrate on just pure noise and a multitude of drums on a stage and just play same old rock patters that are boring and non musical. Like Buddy Rich once said in one of his interviews in Down Beat Magazine most musicians come from the Conn Edison School of music. If the power goes out and the electricity fails the guys have to leave the bandstand . Any way face it there has never never been a drummer as great as Buddy Rich in dexterity speed and all around drumming. The Master Drummer Buddy Rich. Enough said. Buddy Rich
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