I’d also rank Carter Beauford from the Dave Matthews Band up there with the best drummers of all time. He’s an excellent jazz drummer playing in a very good rock band, so he stands out as a superstar.
Another Buddy Rich anecdote (no idea if it’s true or not):
He was on a gurney in a hospital, and a nurse was taking down his info. She asked him, “Any allergies, Mr. Rich?” Sitting upright in the gurney, he said “Yeah, country music.”
Many people consider him an asshole – I believe the most cited examples are those recordings of him chewing out his band (of relative kids) in the 70’s and 80’s. I’ve heard the tapes, and I can’t see much wrong – he was dealing with people who agreed to play by his rules and who were guilty of violating that agreement (not reading charts right, improper ad-libbing, refusal to shave, etc.).
I think he was definitely one of the great drummers of all time. The best? Nah – for all we know, the “best drummer ever” is/was in some podunk town in Iowa or Idaho or Oklahoma or something, doing nothing but playing for his own kicks.
That said, one of the finest performances I’ve ever seen of his was on (I think) The Glenn Miller Story. He did nothing but play his hi-hat cymbal along with a trumpet soloist, and it was one of the most musical things I’ve ever heard.
Any drummer that can keep a steady beat is fine by me, and YES, that is a much harder trick than most people would think.
I went to school with this guy named Clyde C______. He was the best drummer I ever heard and I heard Buddy Rich live on a few occasions and I even played with (I can’t remember his name) the drummer from the old Tonight show band when Doc was the band leader.
I wonder what Clyde is doing.
Legendary rock concert promoter Bill Graham liked to tell this Buddy Rich story:
Graham put together a lot of day-long and weekend-long rock festivals in San Francisco back in the 1960’s, featuring a dozen or more rock acts. One of the few things Graham HATED about Sixties rock was… long drum solos! And every band he booked seemed to feature a long drum solo in those days.
Graham fixed that at a few of these festivals by booking Buddy Rich’s band, and putting them on stage EARLY. Even if Buddy only played a 20 or 30 minute set, well, in that short time, he did pretty much EVERYTHING a human being can do with a set of drums. Immediately after that set, Graham would walk backstage and proclaim “Anybody who’s planning to do a drum solo better be able to top THAT!”
Naturally, everybody got the message, and there’d be no drum solos for the rest of the day.
Now, WAS Buddy Rich the best drummer ever? Depends what you mean. That’s like asking “Who was better- Ty Cobb or Babe Ruth.” Their strengths were very different, and their responsibilities were different. Both were brilliant at doing very different things.
Buddy Rich was a magnificent soloist… but there’s a lot more to drumming than soloing, and Buddy wasn’t the greatest drummer ever in all departments.
I mean, Hal Blaine couldn’t play solos like Buddy Rich, and he freely admits that. But could Buddy Rich have made it as a session drummer? Could he have played dozens of different styles of music, and given each song just what it needed, as Hal Blaine did?
There are many drummers I admire, too many to list them all. But if I were to judge them PURELY in Buddy Rich’s terms… the best soloist I’ve ever seen is Carl Palmer, by far. It’s not even close. But does that make Carl Palmer the greatest drummer ever? Not really. There are other drummers with strengths (versatility, for instance) that Palmer lacks.
So, there’s no one right answer to the OP’s son’s question.
Another vote for Gene Krupa—from my Mom. “I used to go to Steel Pier at Atlantic City when I was a teenager, and see Gene Krupa play,” she says. “I never understood why girls were swooning over Frank Sinatra when Gene Krupa was around!”
No Tito Puente?
Bonham’s my favorite, he did so much to propel the music - The Song Remains the Same is a must-see (plus Jimmy was looking hot before he fried his brains).
Stuart Copeland’s soundtrack to Rumblefish is also fantastic.
Jason Marsalis is only 26, but he’s well on his way to the top of his field.
Keith Moon, in his prime, was rock’s answer to Buddy Rich.
“I even played with (I can’t remember his name) the drummer from the old Tonight show band when Doc was the band leader.”
Ed Shaughnessy
I almost forgot to share my true Buddy Rich story.
In 1978, Buddy and his big band played a concert in my hometown at the civic center. Some of the students from our high school theater production class were working the sound and lights. My friend Dave was on the follow spotlight. During one of Buddy’s extended solos, Dave had the light on Buddy’s Snare drum, but he kept widening the spot and getting it in Buddy’s face. Finally Buddy stopped playing, pointed a drumstick up at Dave threateningly, and yelled, “You’d better keep that goddam thing out of my eyes, kid!” After that, the spot was nice and tight on the snare drum. Dave sure got kidded about it a lot the next few days.
I can only give you a personal testimonial. On a trip to Disneyland some time in the 60’s I found out that the Harry James Orchestra was playing at the Space Bar. There was a bandstand set up outside and a large crowd gathered to hear the music. The band struck up “Sing, Sing, Sing”, a James arrangement of the Benny Goodman number that wow’d 'em at Carnagie Hall. The drummer with James that day was Buddy Rich, and when he got to the drum solo made famous by Gene Krupa, he was magic. That solo lasted a good ten minutes, starting off soft and building in a crescendo to a terriffic climax. The crowd went absolutely wild! I can’t say he was the best drummer of all time, but I can certainly say I’ve never heard better or more exciting. He was on a par with greats like Krupa, Joe Morello, Louis Bellson and Butch Miles.
Too bad Buddy’s not still here. You could ask him if he was the greatest. Three guesses what he’d say.