Customer Reviews

Swingin New Big Band

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DON'T MISS THIS! In 1966, Buddy Rich left his gig as the highest-paid sideman in history with Harry James' band to start another big band of his own in Vegas. When Buddy finally dumped his backer (who wanted this to be a big ROCK band) because the charts were bad, quality arrangers like Oliver Nelson and Bill Reddie (house arranger at the Dunes Hotel) showed up and history was made! The result is one of the most exciting bands you'll EVER HEAR!

This band really PLAYED! I heard it in a little room in Oldtown Chicago called "The Scotch Mist," and they nearly blew the customers' drinks right off the tables! The sound was different, too. The charts were great, but a lot of the uniqueness (I think) came from the "barrel-house" lead trombone of Jim Trimble "pushing" the Vegas trumpet section to new heights. You can really hear the "middle" of the band in their recordings.

The personnel were kind of anonymous in '66 (unless you were a musician), but many are very well known now (such as Bobby Shew, Carson Smith and Gene Quill). Don't be fooled ! In the 60's, you could walk into ANY hotel on "The Strip" and get blown away by the HOUSE BAND! These guys are simply GREAT! (Several of them are still hanging around Las Vegas, some in pretty surprising jobs...).

Thanks to Bob Belden and Dean Pratt (a trumpet-player and Rich alumnus), there are (9) extra tracks not on the original LP, but included on this CD (the five Oliver Nelson charts would make it worth the price of the album alone). So a fantastic album was just made EVEN BETTER by the reissue producers ! Get this, crank up the stereo and just TRY not to grin when the band rips through Bill Reddie's "West Side Story Medley" or Phil Wilson's "Basically Blues." ( I'll bet you WILL....).

This album was the first I ever herd Buddy Rich play. I was already a drummer 13 years and hadn't herd any of Buddy's playing on record. This is his most famous cd of his 1960's big band albums he did on Pacific Jazz, and it's my favorite. Highlights of this album are of course, West Side Story, and Apples, but Hoe Down, Basically Blues, What Did I Say, and Uptight are also of my musical enjoyments. I don't think there was a drummer who wasn't influenced by Buddy Rich, and this cd is why! Any drummer or jazz fan will like this album.

This CD is a must for any fan of jazz, swing and Buddy Rich. The band and the arrangements are fantastic! It's one of the most dynamic groups ever assembled with Buddy. All the sidemen are pros. Basically Blues, Sister Sadie, and this rendition of West Side Story are the some of best pieces Buddy ever recorded - his timing, technique, fills and solos are out of this world. It's an amazing album.

This 1966 recording was the first album from Buddy's new band, a group that would define the rest of his career and become one of the primary forces driving the sound of post-Big Band Era ensembles. Great players, bold arrangements, and Buddy's drumming set a high standard, which I witnessed firsthand at many concerts in the 1970s.
The first eight tracks made up the original LP release, including the classic arrangement of "West Side Story Medley," the success of which prompted Buddy to do other ambitious jazz suites on later recordings (for example, "Piece of the Road Suite," "Little Train," and the best of them all, "Channel One Suite"). The only weak track is the pop tune "Up Tight," but the rest of the album makes up for it.
There are nine bonus tracks (not alternate takes!) that could have made up another whole album, so it's a real treat to have them added to this release - although collectors will find some of these arrangements on Buddy's later recordings.
Leonard Feather's original liner notes are included, plus additional notes written for this release describing the added material and relating some interesting background stories.

The bassist from this session told me that West Side Story was done in the studio after 10 takes and they dubbed in the applause. I guess Buddy wanted his solo to be the best possible from the 10 choices. He put FAR more into that short solo than any other drummer could have, that's for sure! Intensity PLUS!

In the middle of the "British Invasion" music movement of the late 1960's, Bernard "Buddy" Rich, an icon from the swing era a generation past, decided it was his time to start an ork. Against opposition from all the pundits and critics, having had limited success fronting a big band twenty years earlier, when big bands folded in a mass exodus, having been replaced by vocal recordings and be-bop,he had these very same obstacles again, plus rock and roll to contend with.

In a sterling result which exemplifies David vs. Goliath, a case study that should be included in all the top business schools, to say he pulled it off is an understatement.

Using top session players (who, in later years, would be replaced by recent graduates of Berklee and North Texas State), he assembled a library of diverse arrangements: swing/modern jazz hybrids, rock, ballad standards.

This live recording, from the Chez in Hollywood, hit the band in stride, after a mixed result when they debuted at the Aladin Hotel in Vegas. With, at the time, aid from the very best social media source, Johnny Carson, it all fell into place.

Most of the arrangements here did not stay in the book very long. They are strong, nevertheless. "Readymix" by Bill Holman, has the pulse of swing, with some bebop references. Strong effort here from John Bunch, who would soon leave to conduct Tony Bennett, then return in '74 when Buddy scaled down to a sextet. "Basically Blues", stayed in the book permanently, again, strong efforts from Bunch and tenor man Jay Corre, who Buddy recruited from their association with Harry James.

Another strong effort included "Sister Sadie", a Horace Silver piece.

The debut of "West Side Story", in its entirety, was supposedly recorded in a studio. It contains one of Buddy Rich's strongest extended solos on vinyl. He stays in the 3/4 structure (as opposed to later, when he would set his own time signature and solo in a different section of the piece), besides an accented single stroke in the middle which defies description, the solo is totally MUSICAL. It appears he had his tom-toms tuned to D and C (contradicting what he once said, "you don't TUNE tom-toms, you TIGHTEN them"). Nevertheless, the patterns laid down imply the melody.

Now: the added tracks. How in the world did "Naptown Blues", another Horace Silver tune, stay hidden in a vault for thirty years? The shout choruses at the end, with Buddy trading eights, is big band drumming at its pinncacle. The sound that comes out of those drums just flat out ignite the band, driving it beyond compare. It is worth the price of the CD alone.

Summation: I'm reluctant to call it a "comeback" since the man never faltered on the instrument, but rather a belated affirmation of Buddy Rich's place in the jazz world, playing modern, if not progressive charts in the 1960's, at the top of his game. A very good band, not on the level of "Mercy Mercy", but solid. Even Stan Kenton agreed (see the liner notes).

This recording should be standard study for any jazz enthusiast. It has it all in a compact well defined statement of raw power jazz that will never be seen or heard again. These guys did it for fun and enjoyed it. Dont worry about taste- this is very tasty!

Pile-driving energy, tack-driving precision, great arrangements, great club ambience - my favorite all-time big band album.

The year was 1966, and it was the first time I'd caught either Frank Sinatra or the Buddy Rich band live (though Sinatra brought his own pianist, Bill Miller, and drummer, Irv Cottler, to work with the Rich band during his vocal set). The feature number during Buddy's set was, of course, "West Side Story Medley," which was the grand finale. Not long after this period, Rich would be increasingly drawn to rock and to the louder and less sophisticated sounds of the day (it's hard to find anything by him between 1968 and 1972 that doesn't use electric bass and devote a preponderance of the repertory to boring and repetitious rock charts (though "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" was an ingenious arrangement, and "Channel One Suite" was essentially a swing chart).

Which is to say that if swing is your thing, this is the one to get ahead of things like "Big Swing Face," "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy," and "The Roar of '74." It's not Rich's tightest ensemble, but there are enough compensations to make the disc a good investment. 17 tunes on the CD, all but one insipid rock arrangement a walking-bass 4/4 swinger; plus some esteemed major players in jazz (Gene Quill, Pete Yellin, Bobby Shew, Jay Corre, John Bunch and Carson Smith); and of course "West Side Story Medley." This was not a North Texas State farm band being fronted by a 1940s swing star. And the arrangements were by one of the best ever, Oliver Nelson, who probably should have been doing less arranging and more playing given his prodigious talents (unfortunately, he had a family to feed).

Anything by Buddy Rich and his band is worth seeing
or hearing on video or album.
"Basically Blues" is a great song.
"Uptight" is also very good, better than the Stevie
Wonder version.
"West side story" is one of Buddy's best
featuring his dynamic drum solo work.
"Hoe Down" is a great Jazz song.
I love this album, it's definitly worth buying......

Dylan