TTK's First Concert by a Major Artist - Buddy Rich, 1980

[Teasing the Korean]

Not counting things like seeing garage bands play in junior high gymnasiums, the first "real" concert I saw - jazz or otherwise - was Buddy Rich at Dunedin High School in January, 1980.  I went with my parents.

This was the set list, according to an online source:

• Joy Spring
• When Johnny Comes Marching Home
• Best Coast (Buddy Rich)
• 'Round Midnight
• Grand Concourse (Buddy Rich)
• Birdland
• Good News (Buddy Rich)
• Basically Blues (Buddy Rich)
• Collage (Buddy Rich)
• West Side Story Medley

I distinctly remember "Basically Blues," as our high school stage band played this arrangement.  I also remember thinking that the piano player who played the opening improvised solo in that tune played it so much better than I. 

I also remember that I hated "Birdland" as much then as I do now.

My parents said hi to Buddy outside of the tour bus after the show, being that they had worked with him back in the day.  He was polite and pretended to remember them.  

I'm tempted to see if Buddy recorded these arrangements at around the same time and then recreating the set list for myself, less out of an inherent interest in Buddy Rich, but more as a way of reliving my first jazz concert. 

I previously wrote in another thread that George Russell & Max Roach at the University of South Florida was my first "real" jazz concert, but I realize that this concert was about a year later than the Buddy Rich concert. 

Edited August 16, 2023 by Teasing the Korean

[Teasing the Korean]

As a follow-up, I went to the seldom-accessed Buddy Rich section of my LP accumulation, and I am kind of amazed at the number of his albums that I have amassed, probably each for a dollar or less.  This seems to cover the period from roughly late-1960s to mid/late-1970s.  Labels include Pacific Jazz, RCA, and Groove Merchant.

Anyway, I see that on the Pacific Jazz Swingin' New Big Band LP, which I apparently liberated from the Stereo Jack's dollar bin, based on the sticker, Buddy does "Basically Blues" and the "West Side Story Medley."  I don't see any of the other tunes that he played in 1980 on my LPs.  Who knows if the arrangements varied over the decades, or if they stayed the same.

Edited August 16, 2023 by Teasing the Korean

[sidewinder]

Funnily enough, I remember seeing Rich and Co. play the ‘West Side Story’ Medley when I saw them in 1980. 

[Teasing the Korean]

7 minutes ago, sidewinder said:

Funnily enough, I remember seeing Rich and Co. play the ‘West Side Story’ Medley when I saw them in 1980. 

I'll have to listen to it on that LP I mentioned.  I'm guessing it was a showstopper, as these things go.

[Teasing the Korean]

Here is a 1969 video performance of Buddy Rich's Big Band doing the West Side Story medley.  It may or may not be the same arrangement. It runs significantly longer than the version on the Pacific Jazz album, probably because Buddy takes a long drum solo here.

Anyone recognize the guys in the band?  Did any become famous after they got fired?

 

[JSngry]

Chuck Finley (I think) on trumpet 

Richie Cole on lead alto 

Pat LaBarbara on tenor

Rick Stepton on trombone

Rick Laird on bass

I saw Buddy in 1972. He fired Lin Biviano that night. Then I saw Maynard less than a year later and Biviano was in that band. So if you had skills, there were gigs 

By 1980, the Rich band had lost most of its vet players and had a different pocket than this one. I like this one much better. 

11 hours ago, sidewinder said:

Funnily enough, I remember seeing Rich and Co. play the ‘West Side Story’ Medley when I saw them in 1980. 

It was always played. Kind of a "greatest hit".

[JSngry]

Chuck Findley, not Finley. My bad. 

[Rooster_Ties]

6 hours ago, JSngry said:

I saw Buddy in 1972. He fired Lin Biviano that night.

Like, fired him publicly, or on stage even ? (Or somehow you saw and/or heard it?)

[Ken Dryden]

Dave Brubeck with his sons (Two Generations of Brubeck), fall 1973 in New Orleans. I had no idea that I would get to know Dave Brubeck very well as a jazz broadcaster and journalist, in the late 1980s, getting to see him in concert numerous times over the years in different cities. He was always a delightful interview.

Oddly enough, my first date with my wife in 1979 was a Brubeck concert and she ended up being part of a choir singing his sacred music in a 2000 concert.

20 hours ago, Teasing the Korean said:

Not counting things like seeing garage bands play in junior high gymnasiums, the first "real" concert I saw - jazz or otherwise - was Buddy Rich at Dunedin High School in January, 1980.  I went with my parents.

This was the set list, according to an online source:

• Joy Spring
• When Johnny Comes Marching Home
• Best Coast (Buddy Rich)
• 'Round Midnight
• Grand Concourse (Buddy Rich)
• Birdland
• Good News (Buddy Rich)
• Basically Blues (Buddy Rich)
• Collage (Buddy Rich)
• West Side Story Medley

I distinctly remember "Basically Blues," as our high school stage band played this arrangement.  I also remember thinking that the piano player who played the opening improvised solo in that tune played it so much better than I. 

I also remember that I hated "Birdland" as much then as I do now.

My parents said hi to Buddy outside of the tour bus after the show, being that they had worked with him back in the day.  He was polite and pretended to remember them.  

I'm tempted to see if Buddy recorded these arrangements at around the same time and then recreating the set list for myself, less out of an inherent interest in Buddy Rich, but more as a way of reliving my first jazz concert. 

I previously wrote in another thread that George Russell & Max Roach at the University of South Florida was my first "real" jazz concert, but I realize that this concert was about a year later than the Buddy Rich concert. 

I'll have to say I agree with you about "Birdland." At least Rich didn't play the monotonous "Big Mama Cass," a number that a local big band has played far too often.

[JSngry]

2 hours ago, Rooster_Ties said:

Like, fired him publicly, or on stage even ? (Or somehow you saw and/or heard it?)

Biviano kept getting mike feedback on high notes. Buddy was visibly irked and was mouthing at him all night. 

The actual firing is said to have occurred after the gig, behind the auditorium. I wasn't there to see it, but word was that it got heated... 

[Teasing the Korean]

3 hours ago, Ken Dryden said:

I'll have to say I agree with you about "Birdland." At least Rich didn't play the monotonous "Big Mama Cass," a number that a local big band has played far too often.

Yeah, that tune is on one of the albums I have.

I did an online search of Buddy Rich albums from roughly 1970 on, and could not find several of the tunes from the 1980 gig set list on any albums.  Maybe I need to look harder, or maybe I need to look pre-1970 (such as the Pacific Jazz album I mentioned).

 

[JSngry]

AFAIC, the PJ records and the first three RCA albums are the lasting legacy of that band. And of the PJ albums, Buddy and Soul gets a pass from me, and Mercy Mercy Mercy  stays on the list just because it was so damn popular.

A case could be made for The Roar Of 74 as well, I suppose. 

Past that, I'll take mine on YouTube and such. 

But this was a pretty damn good band right here. Frisky like a mo! 

 

[Rabshakeh]

12 minutes ago, JSngry said:

AFAIC, the PJ records and the first three RCA albums are the lasting legacy of that band. And of the PJ albums, Buddy and Soul gets a pass from me, and Mercy Mercy Mercy  stays on the list just because it was so damn popular.

A case could be made for The Roar Of 74 as well, I suppose. 

Past that, I'll take mine on YouTube and such. 

But this was a pretty damn good band right here. Frisky like a mo! 

 

Sorry. I know I always do this, but which would you really go for? Leaving aside Mercy.

[JSngry]

The New One

Stick It

Rich In London - Very Alive at Ronnie Scott's

That should get you where you want to go. 

[Rabshakeh]

Cheers

[JSngry]

 

21 minutes ago, JSngry said:

The New One

Stick It

Rich In London - Very Alive at Ronnie Scott's

That should get you where you want to go. 

 

[Rabshakeh]

Thank you!

[HutchFan]

23 minutes ago, JSngry said:

The New One

Stick It

Live at Ronnie Scott's

That should get you where you want to go. 

Jim,

I'm sort of surprised that Keep the Customer Satisfied isn't on your shortlist.

 

[JSngry]

There's a lot of reflexive repulsion towards Buddy Rich, as well as a lot of idiotic idolatry. I get it, on both sides. But I think an objective individual can parse it all out if they want to.

Bonus record: Keep The Customer Satisfied

 

A big band like this in person...it moves a lot of air in the room. A LOT 

12 minutes ago, HutchFan said:

Jim,

I'm sort of surprised that Keep the Customer Satisfied isn't on your shortlist.

 

Yeah, I am too! 😜

[Teasing the Korean]

So here is what I have accumulated by Buddy Rich as a leader.  While I have a number of jazz albums with him as a sideman, I don't think I have anything under his name from his jazz period, unless the dreadful Buddy Rich Sings counts. (It's been in my "to be cleaned" stack forever.)

Everything else is from his groovy/now sound era.

• Swingin' New Big Band (Pacific Jazz/Liberty, 1966)
• Big Swing Face (Pacific Jazz, 1967)
• The New One! (Pacific Jazz, 1968) 
• Mercy, Mercy (Pacific Jazz, 1968)
• Buddy & Soul (World Pacific, 1969)
• A Different Drummer (RCA, 1971) 
• Rich in London (RCA, 1972) 
• Stick It (RCA, 1972)
• The Roar of '74 (Groove Merchant, 1974)
• Very Live at Buddy's Place (Groove Merchant, 1974)
• Big Band Machine (Groove Merchant, 1975)
• Speak No Evil (RCA, 1976)

I need to dig into these a little more.  For ages, I have had two tracks from Very Live on a homemade funk compilation, "Chameleon" and  Manny Albam's "Sierra Lonely."

I guess I can add Buddy to my "Artists of whom you accumulated a zillion LPs without really trying" thread.

Edited August 31, 2023 by Teasing the Korean

[Teasing the Korean]

8 hours ago, JSngry said:

The actual firing is said to have occurred after the gig, behind the auditorium. I wasn't there to see it, but word was that it got heated... 

Considering Buddy's incessant touring schedule, combined with his proficiency in firing musicians, do we have any knowledge of how he restocked the players?  I realize that North Texas State and Miami were cranking out graduates every year.  Did he audition people, or was it by reputation or recommendation?  Would he fire a guy on Friday night in Cleveland, and another fresh-faced kid would get off a plane in Cincinnati on Saturday, and sight-read the charts?  Did Buddy keep a minor-league farm team from which he could draw fresh blood?

[JSngry]

"groovy/now sound"... Are you basing that on the music inside the covers or the covers themself? 

What if it there is is hardly in the vein of Stan Kenton Plays Hair or anything of that ilk. 

[JSngry]

3 minutes ago, Teasing the Korean said:

Considering Buddy's incessant touring schedule, combined with his proficiency in firing musicians, do we have any knowledge of how he restocked the players?  I realize that North Texas State and Miami were cranking out graduates every year.  Did he audition people, or was it by reputation or recommendation?  Would he fire a guy on Friday night in Cleveland, and another fresh-faced kid would get off a plane in Cincinnati on Saturday, and sight-read the charts?  Did Buddy keep a minor-league farm team from which he could draw fresh blood?

There's networks (especially then there were networks). Not every qualified player has steady gigs. So in a spot like that, the band's MD would either call people directly, or have the office call, get somebody who could make it ASAP, set them up with transportation etc and move on.

For all I know, Buddy could have gotten Al Porcino or somebody to come out for a few gigs at really good pay until a new lead player could get in. 

Worst case scenario, the sub would be delayed a day, so you would hire someone local to play a lesser part and move everybody over accordingly. 

As for getting more permanent replacements, as time passes, the schools did become a farm system of compent players who would work for less. But before that, older established players would get a referral, a phone call, and a chance to accept or refuse. Then business took place. Simple as that.

I've known several people who cancelled our on local gigs literally hours in advance to stay home so they didn't miss that phone call. That was a very real thing. Today, probably all done by text. I don't know. 

As far as sight-reading the book, yeah, that was expected. They wouldn't call somebody who couldn't do a serviceable job of that except in the most dire of circumstances.

All these hi-prike big band schools, their real function wasn't to encourage creativity and stuff like that, it was to make you into a badass section player with multiple skill sets.

Back then, there was a market for that! 

[Teasing the Korean]

17 minutes ago, JSngry said:

"groovy/now sound"... Are you basing that on the music inside the covers or the covers themself? 

What if it there is is hardly in the vein of Stan Kenton Plays Hair or anything of that ilk. 

The vast majority of my LPs are "jazz" or "jazzy" to varying degrees.  I file a significant number of jazz albums in the groovy/now sound section.  These would include things like most CTI albums, Blue Note Rare groove, etc.  The Buddy Rich albums, through a combination of packaging, song selection, and funk beats, are filed there too.  I realize that these albums may have straight-ahead jazz content, more or less, but they overall reflect the now sound zeitgeist in my opinion.  Filing is subjective, and as you have said in another thread, file them where you can find them!

[JSngry]

I dunno... I fully recognize "groovy/now sound" as a thing, and often a good thing, but in my mind, it's a thing that always contains at least some elements (real or pretend) of weed/drugs, 'luded foreplay, and/or staring into the void in awe and/or confusion.

You get none of that - and I mean NONE of that. In a Buddy Rich Big Band album. Absolutely zero. 

The one possible exception might be the RCA disco record Speak No Evil  but I have my doubts that he actually even plays on that one. Seriously. 

But yes, definitely, file then where you can find them! 😂