Customer Reviews

Buddy Rich and His Band--The Lost West Side Story Tapes DVD

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It was thought these tapes were lost in a fire and have not been commercially available for 10 years or more. This is a wonder of current technology that these tapes have been recovered and restored. Originally released in 1985 on Cafe Records as a double-CD set (Mobile Fidelity Labs) and on Beta Hi-Fi, this is one-half of the recording session.... The West Side Story Set. The other, hopefully, (The Channel One Set) will be restored as well. I'll be first in line! This was "State of the Art" recording for its time. The recording was done on the SQ/Tate Surround System, which was left in 4-channel format when transferred to this DVD into DolbyDigital 4.0 and DTS 4.0. The producers, obviously, felt that going the 5.1 route would mess to much with the original sound. Not to worry. It's the best available recording yet of Rich and his mastery of the drums. The microphones are arrays set back to capture a live feel. Some may prefer the up-close technique, but that does produce a clinical studio sound. This sounds like you are sitting in the audience. The seven video cameras have slik-stockings stretched over the lenses to achieve a "soft film feel". I'm not crazy about that, but hey, I am so happy to have this on DVD I'll gladly forget about that. Eight tunes comprise the set, topped by West Side Story and 2 solos by Rich. Even at 67, Rich was a blaze of speed and played everything in front of him. Watch his second "West Side" solo as he sticks the bass drum, the rims, and even the sticks themselves! A legend and the best drummer of all time. Don't think about it..... BUY IT.

Buddy Rich is without question the greatest drum technician the world has ever known. His talent and the way he utilizes that talent is beyond superlative description. This DVD reflex the master at work. It's hard to believe that Buddy could play like this at 67 years old. I challenge anyone at any age to even come close to Buddy. No one on this earth can play like that. The picture quality is excellent, the sound quality is very good, the only drawback to this video is the camera angles. I think that they could have done a much better job especially on the West Side story solo. There's one segment when Buddy is doing an incredible single stroke role and the camera angle that they chose was from underneath the snare drum. How ridiculous. Aside from this, this is a very enjoyable DVD! Is it worth purchasing ? ABSOLUTELY !! There will never be another BUDDY RICH "GO BUDDY" Guy.

This is much better than "At the Top" which has horrible audio and focuses too much on the band and doesn't show enough of Buddy. The Dolby surround sound on this DVD really gives clarity to Buddy's playing(and the rest of the band also). Good camera angles on this too; although a brief camera shot under the snare drum on one of the solos doesn't make any since - it is my only complaint.

"I have been waiting for this dvd and it was worth the wait. The audio is crisp and clear. The picture is so much better than any of the videos out there and Buddy's performance is outstanding. There are great shots of Buddy throughout. The song accessing is a great feature and the way the solos of each musician can be gotten to makes the disc a lot of fun. The commentary
from his wife and daughter was a great touch and I enjoyed the photo archives.
It shows Buddy performing some of his finest music. I recommend it to anyone interested in Buddy Rich, great jazz music, or the drumming of one of the masters."

If you love Big Band jazz like it's supposed to be, big bad and dirty!!!! You'll love this. Buddy's band is just as I remember seeing it, tight and groovy. The only dissappointment is that Buddy is not with us anylonger. I wish I could bring my son to see him as my dad did with me. Thank You for giving us this true treasure. I am alive again......

Rick Simard

This DVD is simply fantastic! The West Side Story Set has NEVER been commercially available before this and is a MUST for every Buddy Rich fan or anyone who desires to see a genius play a set of drums unlike any other. The band is wailing and the extra family interviews, backstage clips, and interview with Buddy himself, it's worth the purchase price alone besides the concert! The audio/video transfer to DVD is A-1 and I only hope that the Channel One Set is also released on DVD soon! This disc is so hot, I have two copies! Highly recommended!

played using a dts decoder and surround sound.the sound is very good but not perfect,picture is excellent.this is a must for the buddy rich collector being one of his last. well worth the extra money if you have dts.

I've seen Buddy Rich play dozens of times and this DVD brings back many fine memories. I thought the sound quality was excellent. However I found the video production to be very disappointing. They built a really cool plexi-glass stage for Buddy to play on, the perfect opportunity to get a close up look at Buddy's foot, but they blew it. All you see is the snares across the bottom head and the Manny's Music logo. What a shame. When Buddy's starts a solo in West Side Story we get to see the bass player turning pages rather than the man doing his thing, you mean to tell me you didn't know that solo was coming. I sure did, I know his book well. They mentioned they had a number of cameras running iso, I guess the page turning was the most interesting shot they had. Shame on whoever did the camera switching and editing, they really missed the boat. Knowing what a perfectionist Buddy was, I'm not sure he would have let this go. I did really enjoy watching him though, I really miss going to see him play

I must say this DVD is somewhat of a dissapointment, because the promised sound quality just doesnt exist. The sound is almost as muddy as it was 16 years ago when it was made. Even Buddy Rich was dissapointed in the the way Live At KIng Street came out and this dvd version doesnt sound much better. The picure is clearer though at least.Also some of the extras are also dissapointing, nothing with really any new info. There are a few scenes with Buddy rehearsing, but thats about it!Oh, and there is a touching tribute by Buddys widow, but thats about it. I really think this could have been alot better with a bit more money and rare footage thrown in.

I'm sure everyone that had heard BR play before knows that he is the best drummer by far. So I'm not going to accentuate that fact again here. What I do want to says is that the recording & audio quality of this DVD is one of the best I'd heard. When I first played the dvd and the main menu's music came up (it's a fragment of one of BR solos), my jaw just drop to the floor `cus is was just like having BRich playing in my living room, and I know about drum set in the living room , my dad is a drummer from that era.
Some people mention "muddy/thin" sound on this dvd,...all I can say is , you're missing the point completely. The idea is to get a truly Big Band sound `al natural, without any type of eq/effects/amplification. This is not a radical novel concept; this is the way classical music has been recorded since, er, for ever. You just don't close mic every violin, cello bass and every tympani, the sound will be very unnatural. In my opinion, the engineers did a superb job on this recording.