Customer Reviews

No Jive

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

 

 

I bought this CD just for the piece "Pipe Dreams", which was originally recorded on "A Different Drummer". It is worth the price of the CD to hear this soulfull ballad and a rare treat to hear Buddy lay a quiet groove with the brushes. Lots of straight ahead BIG BAND on the rest of this compilation CD.

This disc would make a great intro to Buddy's big bands. The first "side" is highlights from Buddy's 1977 release, "Buddy Rich Plays and Plays and Plays...", and the "flipside" is taken from 1971's "A Different Drummer". Both bands are smokin', with fine soloists such as Bob Mintzer and Rick Stepton, not to mention Buddy. One would be much more likely to find the 1971 session a bit dated. It should be noted that the song listed as "Tales Of Rhoda Rat" is actually a Don Menza chart entitled "Time Out". Regardless of what you call the song, I believe it's the highlight of the CD.

Buddy is THE guy who plays the drums. Really he was this big! I bought this cd ten years ago and I still listen to this one very much. These big bands smoked! Bud really knew how to choose his band members.....incredible players. The opener "Ya gotta try" simply will shake your walls. All the tracks are great. I don't find the second part of the cd dated. It shows that when you are a big player, a great jazz master you are timeless no matter if the sounds are "seventies". This part shows that great jazz has been played in the seventies too. If you love big band jazz, or jazz in general buy this one without any esitation. Sure if you're lucky enough to find it.

From the first moment you hear "No Jive", the title track of this excellent compilation, you'll be hooked on big band BR-style. It's still the best tune here along with "Tales of Rhoda Rat" -- no accident that they're both arranged by Bob Mintzer, who's a genius on charts even if his sax playing is too muddy and muted for my tastes. Only Buddy could inspire his band this way, giving the horn section plenty of headroom and still leaving a huge chunk of limelight for his own insane playing. Another review mentioned that "Rhoda" is actually a mis-titled "Time Out", which is incorrect. The latter is one of the most beautiful slower BR tunes ever recorded, and would have eclipsed everything else on this collection. Shame that it's still not available on CD.

This disc pulls together material from three of Buddy Rich's albums for the RCA label: "A Different Drummer" (1971), "Speak No Evil" (1976) and "Buddy Rich Plays and Plays and Plays" (1977). The tracks from the first and third albums are high energy gems, but Buddy's decision to make "Speak No Evil" at all was surely one of the more bizarre missteps of his career. The arrangements are bland, the mid-70's disco-style production values are out of place, to say the least, with the rest of the album, and Buddy's sound is terrible. His discomfort with playing such dead-sounding drums is audible, no doubt a concession he made to the producers. There is some funky, fiery interplay among the rhythm section, particularly with Kenny Barron on Fender Rhodes, but it doesn't cancel out all the other cringe-inducing moments. Far better is the material from the other releases, with Buddy's 1977 band being one of the tightest ensembles ever put to tape (the second tune on the disc, labeled "Tales of Rhoda Rat" by Bob Mintzer, is actually "Time Out" by Don Menza, an error taken from the original album jacket). "A Piece of the Road Suite" simply cooks and is a must-have for Rich fans.

I was very surprized to learn that this album was released back in the 1970's. I truly thought that this was the last of Buddy Rich's efforts. It's some of the best jazz and most complicated and advanced music I have ever heard from him. However, I usually play only the first five cuts on the album. It's a rare album. I have seen it priced as high as $89 on ebay. Get it if you can and hang on to it.

Half of this CD was on an album I once owned. The rest contains a couple of tracks with a smaller group, and then the Piece of the Road Suite from a much older album. Playing is pretty good, but better on the more recent tracks. Dave Stahl and Jon Faddis play on this, as do Bob Mintzer and Steve Marcus, so there are great moments on tracks like Ya Gotta Try and No Jive. The second track is actually "Time Out" by Don Menza, mislabelled here as Tales of Rhoda Rat (which was on the original album I had but is not here).
Lin Biviano, a trumpet player I never liked much , is in the band for the Piece of the Road Suite (which is an OK chart I played once with our University Band) and sounds kind of scratchy and weak on solo and lead. Faddis sounds great, and Buddy's playing is as good as his best.