Buddy Rich Discography Torrent

ORIGINAL LINER NOTES
IT was AROUND 7:00 PM ON Monday EVENING and Bob Auger, one of England's finest mixers, had just checked out the microphones on the bandstand at Ronnie Scott's Club. Everything was working fine so Bob, John La Barbera and I sat down in the control room (Ronnie Scott graciously lent us his office) and discussed Buddy's live recording, which was to take place Monday night through Thursday night.
As I walked out of the control room that Monday, I was delighted. The club was packed, there was not an empty seat, and there were many fans standing. This happened every show!
Buddy's band was unbelievable. Never had they performed with such energy and drive. Each set was a total experience.
No wonder during the engagement people came down four and five different nights. (There were two people who saw every set, every night. And practically every top drummer and musician in London was there, some attended more than once.)
The most difficult decisions John, Buddy and I had to make about this recording were choosing the selections that were to go on the album, especially those selections that were recorded more than once during the sessions.
A major portion of the credit must go to John La Barbera, one of the most gifted young arrangers on the scene today. John composed and arranged St. Marks Square (A Special Day), Theme from 'Love Story' and Dancing Men which kicks off the album. Listen to Time Being arranged and composed by Bill Holman and Little Train by Herbie Phillips. Both of these charts were so difficult that only Buddy's present band could perform them — and so they did, each night, without any difficulty. Don Piestrup's The Word and Mike Gibb's arrangement of the jazz classic Two Bass Hit round out the album instrumentally.
There is one added feature. Buddy's daughter Cathy was with him in London. During the London stay Jon Hendricks wrote a tune called That's Enough, which Buddy liked. During the engagement Buddy had John La Barbera write an arrangement for Cathy. She is backed by John Hendricks' daughters, Michelle and Carlene. Buddy actually rehearsed the arrangement during the live session with the audience in attendance.
To my knowledge Buddy Rich has recorded more live albums than any other artist, and I am thoroughly convinced that Buddy Rich and his band perform best in front of a live audience.
The sound that Bob Auger attained on this album is superior to any you've heard on most live recordings and rivals the controlled sound achieved in studio work. This album has to go down as one of the best live recordings ever made. I am extremely proud to be a part of the experience. Enough said, records speak louder than words.
Pete Spargo
ADDENDUM
THE TELEGRAM SAID, 'FLY TO LONDON. STOP. RECORDING IS ON. STOP.' I had been hanging around New York for weeks waiting for the NY and London offices to give us the green light to record the band and finally it was going to happen. We had recorded our first RCA LP (Different Drummer) and it was selling like crazy and grabbing a whole new audience, so it was logical to keep up the pace, especially with a live recording. Buddy was fantastic no matter where he recorded but in front of a live audience, in the right setting, he was unbelievable. The band was tight from weeks of travel and London was the payback for all those one-nighters. Ronnie Scott's club was a joy to play because the gigs were always sold out to enthusiastic audiences and we were so well treated by Ronnie and staff. Since there was very little change in the personnel (read: only a couple of guys had been fired and replaced) the sections were extremely tight and the charts were well rehearsed but not enough so that Buddy was tired of them. He had a voracious appetite for new music and discarded material as fast as he got it. I learned early on from my brother Pat to get new things to him just before a recording so they would be fresh to him and I'd be sure to get them on the record. We had been playing Bill Holman's Time Being over the previous few weeks and it was quickly becoming a popular finale to our shows, replacing West Side Story Medley. It had been in the book for a while but he never called it. Buddy is on record as saying that this was the first band he felt could do it justice and so it was a keeper for this album. Listen to the triplet foundation and variations he lays down on his solo. It is absolutely astounding and something he'd never done before on this chart. Don Piestrup's chart on Moment's Notice and Herbie Phillips' arrangement of Milestones were natural set openers, and Herbie's three-speed blues, Little Train, was shaping up to close some of those sets. Regardless, with Buddy, you never knew because he never planned sets and picked tunes seconds before the count off.
I'd recently put a few new charts in the book among which were Dancing Men, Watson's Walk, St. Marks Square and Love Story. The latter was a producer call because of its potential to grab audiences outside of the jazz crowd. With the possibility of a UK recording and being a Sherlock Holmes fan, I found inspiration for some of my new material and titles from the Conan Doyle stories. When I first brought the chart to him and he heard the title Dancing Men, he gave me a strange look. I explained the title's connection to the Holmes' stories and our upcoming trip and from then on he started playing it every night with an energy that was typically -Buddy. There had never been anything quite like it in the book before and I was dumbfounded to see him nail it cold after one run through. His straight eighth beats, unlike anything he'd played before, became more and more complex as time went on. Eventually it became the opener and I don't think the trumpet section has ever forgiven me.
I arrived in London and went directly to the Dorchester Hotel where Buddy and Marie loved to stay in those years. In my mind everything was done, so I thought I could relax a bit, visit old friends and see a little of the city during the day, but Buddy had other plans. He immediately started laying out ideas for some new charts and rehearsal schedules for the week. He asked about my progress on the Walk on the Wild Side Suite he had requested, and I had to do a little bit of a verbal dance in response. 'Have it at the rehearsal tomorrow afternoon,' he announced. (As it came to pass, he would have to wait 15 years for that one.) 'Oh, and by the way, Cathy and Jon Hendricks' daughters, Michelle and Carlene, have worked up a three-part vocal thing. It's called That's Enough and I want to put it on the album, so do a chart on it after you hear it at the rehearsal tomorrow.' There went my days and nights.
Opening night came and we took over Ronnie's tiny office for our control room. We barely had room for anything except the equipment and the pints of beer that kept arriving. Brian Auger, our engineer, had just come away from recording Frank Zappa's 200 Motels. It's very telling about that previous gig that he found recording the world's greatest and most temperamental drummer, live in a packed nightclub, with a closet for a recording booth, mixing live on the fly to an eight-track machine, a relatively sane environment in which to work. We had three nights of recording to pull it off; and with Buddy, it had better be right. The routine was simple; Brian worked the faders and kept the tape rolling while I yelled out solos, full ensemble hits, solis, etc., to him about four bars ahead of the band.
I'm sure all the bandleaders in town were cursing Buddy because every drummer, or anyone who even owned a pair of sticks, was there for the week's performances. One drummer was there every night, every set. At around $30.00 a show in today's money, that's quite a fan. The crowd was literally a Who's Who of the European music and entertainment scene. Some of them may have been there to be seen, but in the end it was Buddy who grabbed the spotlight.
Before and after each set, Buddy and Ronnie Scott would verbally spar with each other to the delight of the crowd. There was a mutual love between them and the putdowns and jokes at each other's expense were hilarious. They both called on their tried-and-true vaudeville licks to best each other and it was obvious that they were having a ball. That bit of microphone banter added the right touch of show business before Buddy hit the stage and put the hammer down.
I'm amazed how well this recording holds up after 35 years and I know you'll agree when you hear Ronnie say, 'now ladies and gentlemen, we'd like you to welcome to the bandstand, the fantastic band led by the world's greatest drummer. Ladies and gentlemen Buddy Rich and his orchestra.'
John La Barbera
2006

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1365845433 64037948 02 - The Word.wav
1225189356 43425020 03 - St. Marks Square (A Special Day).wav
845094072 35839820 04 - That's Enough.wav
1433844888 68203340 05 - Little Train.wav
12254477 36265532 06 - Moment's Notice.wav
780390337 61530716 07 - In A Mellow Tone.wav
3358199356 57675788 08 - Milestones.wav
2538747045 79076636 09 - Watson's Walk.wav
2647730915 43166300 10 - Two Bass Hit.wav
4057614037 62429180 11 - Theme From Love Story.wav
2445882425 138852716 12 - Time Being.wav
1833324043 50732684 13 - Buddy Rich Speaks.wav
auCDtect: CD records authenticity detector, version 0.8.2
Copyright (c) 2004 Oleg Berngardt. All rights reserved.
Copyright (c) 2004 Alexander Djourik. All rights reserved.
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