Buddy Rich

Buddy Rich earned acclaim as "the world's greatest drummer" through unmatched technique, speed, power, and the knack for crafting spectacular drum solos. Although certain peers explored more experimental paths, none approached his stature even in the beginning stages of his career.

A prodigy, Rich entered vaudeville drumming at eighteen months under the billing "Traps, the Drum Wonder," relying entirely on self-instruction. He remained active on the vaudeville circuit through childhood and emerged as a capable singer along with an accomplished tap dancer. Drumming nonetheless defined his direction, so by 1938 he had turned to jazz inside Joe Marsala's combo.

Rich soon anchored Bunny Berigan's orchestra, devoted most of 1939 to Artie Shaw while the clarinetist fronted swing's leading attraction, and then, apart from military service, contributed to landmark recordings with Tommy Dorsey from 1939 through 1945. During those years he plainly supplanted his friend Gene Krupa as the foremost drummer of the era.

He fronted a bop-flavored outfit between 1945 and 1947 that never gained wide acceptance, appeared on Jazz at the Philharmonic tours, and joined countless all-star sessions for Verve throughout the 1950s with such figures as Charlie Parker, Lester Young, Art Tatum, and Lionel Hampton. Further engagements took him through Les Brown, Charlie Ventura, another Tommy Dorsey spell in 1954–1955, and repeated periods with Harry James between 1953 and 1966.

A heart attack in 1959 interrupted his schedule only briefly; although he weighed a permanent shift to singing, Rich never abandoned the drums.

In 1966 he overcame skepticism by launching a successful big band that remained his chief platform for the last twenty years. Cardiac problems reappeared in 1983, yet Rich continued to invest full intensity in every performance and kept demanding more of himself to the end. A perfectionist who held sidemen to the same rigor—sometimes treating them harshly—he is exhaustively chronicled in Mel Tormé's book Traps the Drum Wonder. His exceptional performances survive on several widely available videotapes, though surprisingly few of his later big-band albums have appeared on CD.