Buddy vs Basie

Recently, my father asked me, “Do you think Buddy Rich’s band would be as amazing as it was if he didn’t have such a violent temper?”

My immediate thought was yes, because Buddy Rich would have always been Buddy Rich, but then I realized my answer was: yes and no.

The thing is: Buddy was not necessarily the asshole that everyone thought he was. He was extremely short-tempered, but there was no ego there. He was by no means all about himself. This is evident in many interviews where he speaks about music as a whole, and not about his own success. He didn’t care when Downbeat named him best jazz drummer. If you listen to any of his trio albums or any recordings he did with smaller combos in the late 50s, such as Lionel Hampton’s Quartet (please look up this album and its A Team lineup), he plays like a jazz combo drummer. He is tasteful and lighter in his playing and isn’t doing anything close to the machine with the powerful solos like the Buddy we all know. Check out his rare album with Nat King Cole, where Cole doesn’t even sing, and Buddy is there to merely support his piano playing. Short temper or not, Buddy Rich had class and appropriate etiquette when it came to being a musician.

Personality will, however, come out in your music no matter what. This got me thinking of Count Basie, who is at the other end of the spectrum. Count was gentle, relaxed, swingin’, easy-going, and mellow. His style and charts emulated these qualities. He started playing in a time where bands were meant to be loud without amplification and be the live source of entertainment to which people would dance.

Count Basie was one of my first introductions to jazz when I was five. I remember hearing the sax section of his orchestra and feeling like it was a soft blanket enveloping my brain. Soon after, I fell in love with Buddy Rich’s band. His big band arrangement of “Norwegian Wood” made me feel like I was surfing on a tidal wave; a hurricane of adrenaline driving with focus. I always think of Buddy Rich and Count Basie being my mother and father in jazz. I feel as if they raised me, but you couldn’t have more polar-opposite band leaders.

Obviously, Buddy Rich was younger, and Count Basie’s career started to flourish in the big band era. Buddy’s career started in swingin’ big bands, namely Tommy Dorsey and Artie Shaw, before becoming a big band leader himself. By the time he had his own band, jazz eras had changed many times. Although big bands were still popular, the younger crowds latched on to bebop, post bebop, hard bop, more complex harmonies and intervals, and arrangements had become vastly more complicated.

Big Band arrangements, especially, had become more complicated. Buddy Rich had the LaBarbera brothers, as well as the unafraid Bill Reddie, who arranged the famous 10-minute West Side Story medley. He also composed/arranged one of the most well-known monster charts for the Buddy Rich band, “Channel One Suite.” Count Basie had older charts arranged by Sammy Nestico, and eventually had arrangements beautifully written and composed by Quincy Jones. Please give a listen to the Basie album, “Basie One More Time,” which is entirely Quincy Jones compositions and arrangements. It is a staple record in all of jazz history.

The thing about Buddy Rich was he was a true freak of nature. He was born a perfect drummer. When his parents realized Buddy had a natural percussive talent at six months old, they immediately put him in their vaudeville act, the “Rich and Renaud Show.” He didn’t have a childhood. He never went to school. He was a jazz freak of nature throughout the entirety of his life. That’s why there never was a Buddy Rich before him, and there will never be another Buddy Rich.

Since it was the essence of who he was, he most likely didn’t understand how normal people made mistakes. We have to work at things and mess up once in a while… or often. He had no concept of how it was to be a musician that had to actually work at getting better. He just was. This is also the attitude he had that is displayed in the infamous bus tapes, yelling furiously at the band. He could not empathize. The listener can also hear this tension when any of his bands play. His anger and perfectionist personality caused stress and tension, and this pressure causes any musician to be louder and faster. It’s a mere hypothesis on the personality of Buddy’s bands, but also a factor that makes them so different from every other big band. At that time they were an anomaly in jazz. Buddy literally had a band called “The Killer Force.” He really was the creator of “fuck you” jazz. People were forced to listen to its power.

Fun facts: despite their vast differences in style and personality, Buddy and Basie were actually good friends. Buddy played with Basie’s band in the 50s, and recorded on three Count Basie albums. In 1957, Buddy released a Count Basie tribute album, “This One’s For Basie.” There are arrangements on many Buddy Rich albums that include a very “Basie-esque” sax soli, including “In a Mellow Tone” on the “Swingin’ New Big Band” album. The same characteristics of a great band were present.

All in all, Count Basie’s big band made you get up and dance. Buddy Rich’s big band made you sit down and listen. Both band leaders cared about the full team of musicians, usually at least 17 people, more than they cared about themselves being the name on the album. Buddy’s personality made him misunderstood, but that’s what made Buddy Rich’s bands amazing.