My Buddy Rich

When I came in to work today, a colleague announced that Buddy Rich, the drummer, had just passed away. Wait a minute! I knew that Buddy Rich, my drumming idol when I was a kid, had died at about age 70 in the mid-80s.

Buddy Rich, imho, was incredible. Went way beyond conventional rolls, flams and paradiddles. This guy could do one-handed rolls with either hand, smoothly and at fantastic speed. Gene Krupa and Max Roach were also amazing drummers of that era, but for me it was Buddy Rich and his technique.

I was to learn that the Buddy Rich of today's news was apparently a rock drummer, not a jazz drummer as My Buddy was. (Guess my awareness of hot rock drummers never got much past the great Ginger Baker-- until Toby, of course.) Showing my age, I recalled that I bought a Rich Vs. Roach album in 1959, my final year of high school and took it with me to college (I still have the album, and have it on the pile that someday I intend to digitize ... using my old Technics turntable that I connected to my computer with a German phono preamp via USB port).

One of the more well-known Buddy Rich events was his appearance with the Muppets in 1970-something:



And another interesting TV appearance in 1965 was with Jerry Lewis.

RIP, all Buddy Riches.