Had the privilege to play with Charlie Davis many times, what a bad boy and great arrangement of Something! The whole band sounds like a record. Priceless!
Saw Buddy Rich in Racine Wisconsin,in Nov 1971 Awsome Nite I stopped playing drums after that niye; I wld never get near that caliber of playing, Thank you Buddy for a Disneyland nite
So if you refuse to be a doormat you're a wimp? Make no mistake, Buddy was a great, great drummer--a legend in his own time and certainly the greatest jazz drummer in history up to that point. But he had pluses and minuses to his leadership abilities. Being a good leader takes many skills, some of them musical, some of them non-musical. Being a dick to people privately or in public (Buddy did both) because you lack judgement or cannot handle your temper is no way to be a Man. At times it seems that Buddy learned his band management skills from Tommy Dorsey. There are many stories (in Mel Torme's book alone) where Buddy just lacked good judgement and social skills. However, he had a great sense of humor, many good friends, and a huge mass of fans--the people at large who wanted to love him. It does not make you a snowflake if you diligently practice, study, and continually improve and then also demand that everyone show you the respect you offer to others.
Buddy rich was the best.he was one of a kind,an animal from another planet.you will never see another jazz drummer like this again.with this type of stamina and speed,a left hand that would make quit playing.good luck and enjoy .
My father was the sound engineer on a load of the Dorchester big band sessions -- and he talked about how great they were A LOT -- so it's great to finally see some footage, thank you.
The Bach 16 trombone Alan Kaplan is playing is sitting here in my office/studio. He sold it to a trombone player in S. Cali a few years later. I bought it from him in '79. I checked with Alan and he confirmed it's the same trombone. For the next 25 years it was my trusty "A" trombone and my favorite for playing jazz........although I never played it as well as Kaplan did. I finally wore it out. I could have it refurbished. Come to think of it, maybe I will
This was a whole series of Big Band spectaculars filmed at the Dorchester for a few weeks on BBC terrestrial TV. I well remember , as a weird thirteen year old yearning to watch these on the broadcasting day but as the youngest of a family of five with the one TV and three channels I had no chance. Nice to see it now though.
Cloudview, this is a really great mix the audio is outstanding. or I listen to this the more I like it and the more I hear buddy doing incredible things right under the surface with his right foot and all kind of accents that every time I listen to it I hear something that I didn't catch before. The way buddy seamlessly incorporates all those little things you can break the song Down and spend a year just studying every Nuance to what he's doing here. Simply an incredible timeless treasure. I think even the Beatles "folks" would agree lol
Oh yes, here we have our fine gentleman demonstrating his take on these compositions, which obviously is as good as it gets.....Dial in flame, caught fire,warms the blood, boiling well, exciting and unprecedented takes....all w a of touch the right chords right rhythms, thanks for the lesson Mr. Rich....and the band too of course........& thankyou 4 taking my comment...
Thank you for posting this in such high quality. This was one of my favorite incarnations of the band. I attended a performance in Milwaukee once, where Buddy did a nearly 10-minute version of "Standing Up In A Hammock", where he totally cut Jimmy Bruno (guitar) loose, and it was one of the highest energy things I ever heard. Same sort of thing often happened with Pat LaBarbara... When Buddy loved his players, he let them PLAY!
Cloudview, hope this message finds you in good health and spirits. Although I love all of the shows you have generously posted, this particular show truly makes me feel like I am right there and part of the audience and has a certain warmth and magic to it that is truly special. there is an intimacy between the audience and Buddy that has been captured by the crew who produced this this that is really special. Kudos to the producers of this production this is Top Shelf work and provides an escape to the insanity going on in our world and as always I am thankful for it. Peace, Bob M.
Roar of '74 ! I often wonder why Portobello Road was left off that LP. I love that arrangement. Thanks again Cloud as u know there is an extremely noisy version of Portobello on youtube along with Backwoods Sideman. This content almost looks like recorded last week awesome job ! ! !
The more I hear Buddy's sarcasm, the better I like it. After all, he was a child of vaudeville since the age of two. It makes me wonder if Buddy Rich and Sammy Davis Jr. ever crossed paths during their formative years and what that was like.
Awesome re-mix thanks a billion I can actually hear the bass guitar now and the video quality is 100 percent better - awesome work ! Ready to go into the soundtrack of the next Austin Powers movie !
Yeah but buddy still used the rogers swervomatic foot pedal since rogers sponsored him. He sounded great playing rogers! But the older slingerlands sound great.
I actually met Buddy Rich... In a dream. I was backstage with him for some reason before a performance. He was sitting in a chair waiting to get a drink. He had funny looking hair I thought in this dream, (Looked like mob-top Ringo Starr's hairstyle.) So I told him that his hair looked funny. And he asked me why, why did I think I thought his hair looked funny? He asked. And I didn't have anything to say, so I just told him that I was kidding about his hair looking funny, and he said ''You better be.'' The way that he said it seemed to scare me, he was very intimidating. I'm just very grateful that I didn't tell him that he couldn't play the drums, even if after all it was just a dream. That was a very interesting dream.
Damn this is now awesome ! Last time I clicked on it it was black & white and very distorted so once again a trillion thanks for "Hi-Fying" it ! Great job - btw this was 1 of the 1st BR bands I got to see / hear live ! I remember because Pat Labarbera was in the band. It was in a tent at the Lambertville Music Circus in NJ. It had a rotating stage.
1. Time Check (Don Menza). Pat LaBarbera- tenor sax. 2. Waltz . Greg Hopkins- trumpet. 3. Senator Sam (Ernie Wilkins).. Jimmy Bruno- guitar; Alan Kaplan, Keith O'Quinn- trombones:John Leyes- bass trombone. Bob Crea- tenor sax. 4. Something (Lennon/ McCartney) Charlie Davis- trumpet
wow just wow....and thank you for sharing this amazing show with amazing quality sound.. speechless im just speechless and the neighbours are also rocking to this wooooohoooooo
That tie Buddy is wearing weighs more than him. I think he was like 145 lbs., pretty small man with a ton of power! And what a great player Pat Labarbera is. And his brother Joe is one of my favorite drummers ever. I think first trumpet was Lin Biviano who told me to hit the road at Jimmy's Night Club in NYC when I asked him if he could ask Buddy to sign my 8th grade yearbook. He devastated me that night.
My god, The musicians in the bands that play with Buddy are so tight...It's the perfect Jazz...Anyone that disputes Buddy being the overall G.O.A.T. drummer doesn't know drums...
I've seen Mr.Rich and his band only @ the Great American Music Hall ( in San Francisco), and only just really knew of him from Mr. Wiley from Redwwod High School (near Corte Madera), so I did get to see him from the balcony and be taken by his unbelievable ease in performing and what made me so very sad is he was booked for a show (@G.A.M.H.) and passed away, he was in the S.F. Chronicle so he must of been alive when he was booked.... Just wanted to share that with you all....
I was there at GTAMH in San Francisco, both times. The 2nd time; 1985 Don Menza sat in at 2nd alto. Didn't play any solos (if I remember correctly) Maynard's opened up before Buddy. I have numerous slides of his first time at The GAMH, that have been posted and copied by other Online.
The Roar of 74 would have been so much better of an album if the chart Portobello Road was included on it. What a delightful chart. Pat's soprano sax is awesome on it.
Yes. They say "MORE IS BETTER" when it comes to eating fruit & vegetables. Well, the same thing is true when it comes to Buddy and how many charts to include on an album!
In my opinion, his Groove Merchant and recordings after that suffered from compressed dynamic range …or something. They just didn’t have the presence of the Pacific Jazz or even RCA stuff.
WOW, the crowd looked disgusted at the iteration of the Beatles "Something". This must be somewhere in the U.K. Trumpet sounded better than Maynard. Love it.
Labarbera was a fantastic player. only first chair that was promoted from within. started in 2nd chair and moved over when Don Menza left all other 1st tenors--Corre, Menza, Marcus were brought in as firsts.
Not to be pedantic (obviously), it was Don Menza, trumpeter, composer and arranger... - MENSA is the IQ Society, for folks with high IQ's.... Some think that Mensa is an acronym, but in fact it isn't... It's a Latin word for 'table', in which all members are deemed as equal.....
Guitarist Jimmy Bruno started playing with Buddy at 19. He's probably 20 here. I just looked him up, he's 64 and very ill because of some weird seizure as the result of a fall that he refused to go to the hospital for. Makes me feel old seeing this kid play on video like it was yesterday. Here's a link to the story and Jazz Bridge about halfway down ; www.philly.com/philly/entertainment/philly-jazz-great-jimmy-bruno-in-critical-condition-after-fall-20170818.html
Thanks for that,Johnnyc, i go to Wrexham in the UK on jazz guitar festivals and a couple of times Jimmy was pencilled in to appear but he never quite made it.Sad to hear he is ill as he was all round rated as a fine player. Another ex Buddy Rich player appeared a couple of times,Jack Wilkins ,who was fulsome in his praise of Buddy.He also thought the notorious tapes of Buddy,ranting at the band ,were disgraceful .Jack reckoned if you did your job well,Buddy was an utter gentleman.
Why was Portobello Road never released on one of Buddy's albums? It is most certainly a great chart. I know Buddy played some charts live that never made it to an album. What are you doing the rest of your life being one other of them. Brian Grivna really outdoes himself on the At the top recording of it. It'd be nice to have recordings of these rare charts.
The second number, Portabello Road, is amazing. There might not be as good a version today as Buddy Rich, but this should almost be a jazz standard. Those solos are insane; Hopkins on trumpet pushes the theme to the limits with those notes.
Sorry to be a pedant, but the title is 'Portobello Road', not 'Portabello Road'....although you are not the only person to make the same typographical error..even the London Underground station made the same mistake!!!
"...It's called ' Something. ' As soon as they get a title for it, we''ll finish it and play it. " This line ranks up there with " How would you like your eggs cooked?" " Sure, that'd be nice."
good to see you uploading quality br footage again mr cloudview! (although im commenting maybe 4.5 years too late) can you please give me a track list for this concert?
In 2 parts :: Part 1, Part 2 ::Tracks are : --TIME CHECK (Don Menza) ; Portobello Road ; Senator Sam (Ernie Wilkins) ; Something (George Harrison) ; (Prelude To A Kiss (Irving Gordon, Irving MIlls, Duke Ellington) ; Here's That Rainy Day (Johnny Burke, James Van Heusen) ; Backwoods Sideman (Pat LaBarbera) ; Blues.....(finale)..Personnel in band are : Charlie Davis, Larry Hall, John Hoffman, Greg Hopkins -- (trumpets/fluegelhorn); Alan Kaplan, John Leys, Keith O'Quinn (trombones); Pat LaBarbera, Bob Martin, Joe Romano, John Aslawski, Bob Crea (reeds/saxes); Bob Budson (piano) ; James Bruno (guitar); Ronald Paley (electric bass); Buddy Rich (drums).....
Ah,thanks for identifying Jimmy Bruno on guitar.Buddy did not have a permanent guitar chair but i know of three who played at various times.Walt Namuth(soloed on Mercy,mercy,Mercy)),Jimmy Bruno,and Jack Wilkins early on i think.At one club date in the uk ,the club`s house guitarist Terry Morton was sitting at the back of the stage listening to Buddy with Jimmy Bruno..After one number with a Bruno guitar solo Buddy said to Jimmy" Why do you have to play so?*?*?*?** loud ,but you play nice so take a bow"! I think Buddy,though not a guitar person,appreciated Jimmy`s artistry on the instrument...lol.
Thank you, Mr django, for your insightfulness... It is often hard to pick out the guitar work [unless they are given a solo, which is not usual ] in a Big Band, because the guitar is considered just part of the 'rhythm section'.....
He a 20 year old kid in this video, but he's 64 now and in critical condition as the result of a a fall and seizure at his home and refusal to go to the hospital.
