Customer Reviews

Big Swing Face

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
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The original LP release of this album was nothing short of absolutely amazing. Now with the bonus tracks, any lover of Buddy Rich's drumming cannot afford to be without the CD version. Two tracks are particularly worthy of Buddy. "Love for Sale" has to have the most energetic single stroke roll in the history of jazz drumming. How he lived through that one, let alone played it, is unknown to me. Then there is "Apples (aka Gino)" which I nominate as the new "Cute." On this one, though, there are no brushes, just a hard, driving, nearly machine-like pace that's leaves the listener breathless and eager to play the track again.

"Big Swing Face" is notable for the woodwind ensemble work, smooth as silk, and there's the rebirth of "Bugle Call Rag." No, it's not very military here, just a hard, swinging tune.

A bonus is "The Beat Goes On" with Buddy's daughter Cathy Rich providing the vocal.

If you like big bands, and a drummer that really kicks the band into better, more inspired playing, you won't go wrong with this CD.

I'm not a drummer (a Jazz guitarist actually) but Buddy Rich is one of my musical heroes. He is up there in my personal Olympo. He embodied what I believe music should be. Virtuosistic abilities, fun, attitude, adventureness, deep value, hard swing, melodic-harmonic-rhitmic richness, beautiful charts. Buddy Rich is up there to me in the history of good music, with Bird and all the best cats. In these days I am trying to buy everything I see from the man to own his full story (but he recorded a lot believe me!!). Going through the various periods I have to say that Buddy is always simply unreachable whatever he plays, but the best big band albums are to me some of the best music he recorded in his immense career. This one is fantastic. It swings hard from the beginning to the end, the chart are sublime, the program absolutly interesting 'till the last note, and the band tight and well rounded. And I don't want to say nothing about Buddy. BUDDY RICH !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Believe me, if you want stellar Jazz that swings hard, if you want to have fun with a jazz record, and if you want to buy something really precious, something that you will treasure forever, buy this album. Thank you Buddy for all the fantastic emotions your music gives me. AND YOU DUDE, BUY, BUY, BUY THIS ALBUM.

... just clean, clean as a whistle jazz to which you just gotta grin. There's nothing like the Big Band anywhere else, and in no other "live" recording did the Buddy Rich band come alive more than right here, folks. I had the original record on Pacific Jazz back in the late '60's, and everyone I knew (we were in high school then) absolutely loved it! When I found it in CD a number of years ago, I picked up my jaw, took out my wallet and ran straight home to hear it in all of its flawless, digital glory. I haven't stopped listening to it since. The beat goes on, man! There's none better than this. Check out "New Blues," along with "Love For Sale," and, of course, "The Beat Goes On," the latter of which is the greatest music-to-drive-by of the century. Great for parties, great for work, and drop-dead great all around. This CD will put you out in the orbit of Neptune and you won't even have to pick up the tab for the rocket fuel. Drop your socks and call the law--Buddy's back!

This is an outstanding CD, capturing Buddy Rich with one of his greatest bands. Super tight playing by the ensemble, great charts, and of course...an outstanding performance by the greatest drummer of all time. A couple of highlights...1). The opener, "Norweign Wood" is a very hip take on the Beatles classic. This tune was an oft requested number for all of Buddy's subsequent bands when performing live. A great version is captured here. 2). Buddy's then 12 year daughter provides vocals for the then popular Sonny and Cher hit, "The Beat Goes On". She does great, supported by a very hip arrangement.

Great solo action on all charts from across the band.

This CD is a must for all Buddy fans, or Lovers of non-dance big band music in general. Check out all the other titles available from Pacific Jazz capturing different iterations of this same band thru the late 60's.

My father played this album for years as I was growing up. I knew every solo by heart. When the CD came out I bought it, and continue to listen to it all the time. I think this album is better overall than the "Swinging New Big Band" album--but they are quite similar in the way they sound.
By the way, if you are new to Buddy Rich, the Buddy Rich Big Band of the late sixties is VERY different than any other era, before or after. I don't care for any of his 40's & 50's stuff, and little of his 70's stuff. But this band is absolutely the best at hard-driving, swinging big band jazz around. The first 5 tracks are the best, and I can listen to them in a row, and get so caught up in the music that I wonder where the time has gone when they are done. I strongly recommend this album! (And, based on recommendations here--and the sound samples--I am going to buy the Mercy Mercy CD immediately.)

"Big Swing Face" is one of Buddy's more popular albums. I would certainly describe it as a classic. I first heard Buddy Rich when I was a kid when an older cousin of mine played me some of his LPs. Needless to say, I was mesmerised, and spent the next four decades of my life as a drummer.

This CD version also contains tracks that are not on the original LP release, which I still own. Even today, this recording remains one of my all-time favourite Rich albums. You can really feel the atmosphere of the gig, and the band just groove so well. His music crossed categories, and attracted a huge audience, and even if you're not into jazz, or drumming for that matter, you will love this album.

I was fortunate enough to see the Buddy Rich Big Band on two occasions back in the 80's, and even met the great man at the second gig. He was, and still is, my drumming hero, and I feel honoured to have seen him play live. The guy was a genius. He could play things on a drumkit that were incredible, and leave even today's top Session players (Dave Weckl, Vinnie Colaiuta, etc.), shaking their heads in disbelief.

One of the many highlights on this recording is when Buddy introduces his 12 and a half-year-old daughter Cathy, onto the bandstand to sing "The Beat Goes On". It is here that you start to appreciate how much of an "entertainer" Buddy was, and audiences always loved when he got out front. Often known for his wonderful sense of humour, Buddy could charm any audience with his great wit and warmth of character.

"Big Swing Face" is a fantastic album. If I had to choose just one Buddy Rich CD that everyone should buy, this would be the one. You will be tapping your feet throughout this recording, and the music and feel of this recording just gets to you. This band is hot man! Buddy could swing like no other.

Buy it today.

Yanek

This album came out a year after I'd caught Rich with Sinatra, a period when, above all, the great drummer wasn't afraid to swing! Beginning in 1968 Rich, like so many other jazz musicians, practically became paranoid of the walking-bass 4/4 swing pattern that had served everyone from Basie to Charlie Parker to Bill Evans so well. A pulse as fundamental to life as a heart beating or a lung breathing was no longer sufficiently "emphatic" to be heard, or understood, by the '60s generation. Rich tried to "connect" with the Beatles-Stones audience by going to a quasi-rock repertory along with the addition of electric bass. Fortunately, this phase lasted for only several years, and by 1974 Rich was once again validating the swing tradition of Basie, Goodman, Dorsey and his own roots.

"Big Swing Face" captures the band at an optimal period, especially for listeners who don't require for every tune the double-eighth-note, on-the-beat, slam-bam feel of much rock-pop music. And a previous reviewer's point about Rich's later incorporation of electric bass is well taken. A recently released DVD video of the Rich band from the late '70s features an all-swing program but retains electric bass (even Dizzy Gillespie made exclusive use of the instrument for a while). The instrument, quite frankly, sounds loud but penetrating and out of balance with the rest of the band. The band may swing as much, but from a listener's perspective the sound is less buoyant, less integral with the overall sonic textures of the ensemble.

Fortunately, by the end of the '70s, the great bass debate was fait accompli: the acoustic instrument had proven its inherent worth and staying power--at least in the jazz idiom. It's refreshing, though, to hear a recording made before all the fuss interfered with simply enjoying the music. "Big Swing Face" is such a recording, boasting, moreover, a total of eighteen tunes (admittedly, a couple of them "period pieces," though Buddy's 12-year-old daughter's singing makes it easy to forgive one such instance), making it a great value and assured winner for any fan of Rich or just plain swinging, great big band jazz.

Finally, for an "on location" recording the audio is first rate--better, in fact, than many studio dates with the bonus of the electricity that only a responsive audience can bring.

this cd is simply one of his greatest performances.His rendition of bugle call rag is one of his greatest solos. His band is in top form as usual.The brass and reed sections are as crisp and detailed as ive ever heard them. The master himself as usual cannot be equaled. This album truly illustrates that Buddy Rich is "the worlds Greatest Drummer.

I remember this album fondly. My father bought the album for me in the early 70's, and I recorded it on tape so I could listen (and appreciate it) more when driving.
Those familiar with "commuter Jazz" or the 60's sound, fast and driving will understand this.
Listen to this in comparison with Harry Connick, Jr.'s sound, and you'll feel and hear the difference. It is from a classic big bander changing with the times, like Miles Davis. I enjoy this collection, and for drummers, you'll be impressed, and what stamina the man had!

You get nine extra numbers that weren't on the vinyl record. This CD is nothing short of amazing.
The way Buddy and the band back his young daughter on the Sonny and Cher tune entitled THE BEAT GOES ON is absolutely draw-dropping--in that they move something like a Swiss time piece. Tight. Tight. Tight.

I am not a musician, nor can I claim to know what it takes to create anything incredible--all I can tell you is I know when the stuff is great--because it fills you up inside and hammers you with a powerful rush that sends you soaring.

That's what the great artists do to you--and the late Buddy Rich and his Big Band pull it off and then some.