[video:youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=wnfYhpNa1NY#t=22[/video]

He was the best but tough to work for. Saw him fire a guy for being a few minutes late and the show didn't even start yet. Terrible stormy night and a sax player missed the band bus. Drives himself from NYC to the concert venue, a Holiday Inn in New Brunswick NJ, ( an hour drive on a good day). Guy comes in soaking wet just as the band is unpacking their instruments and Buddy fires him.
Also saw him do the famous West Side Story arrangement at the Arts Center in NJ. Unbelievable !!! Buddy's band was the opener and then had to back up the headliners, The Supremes. Diana Ross wouldn't go on the next night unless they got a new band to back her up. Buddie's trumpet section was standing and dancing behind her as she sang !! Took some of the spotlight away from the Diva.
Look up the famous "bus tapes" of Buddy chewing out the band. No drum machine could do that.

Definitely someone who would turn the tables on most of us here!

Imagine being fired because YOU weren't perfect! Oh the horror!

But, bottom line, there isn't a single person on this forum with the chops to be on stage with him, anyway (maybe Russ in his day, I don't know). Must be embarrassing to have a drummer be better than US!

I simply hope we can stop this beating up on non-arranger playing musicians. Fact is, if we were any good, we'd be playing with the best, and wouldn't have a word bad to say about them, and would consider ourselves lucky to be playing with them. The fact that some of us only look to how bad the people they used to play with were is a bit fishy, IMO. Particularly in light of just how poor the playing in general here is (with certain notable exceptions), TBH, how poor your fellow band members were says a lot more about YOU than it does about them!

It has been my great honor to have played with some of the best drummers in the business (sessions with Gadd, Purdie, Tony Thompson and many more, back in my NY days), and too many great guitarists and bassists to mention, and at no time will I ever paint an entire instrument as bad or unreliable.

If that's all you could get to play with you, you have my condolences..!

Another legend who's extreme talent overshadowed his short temper, and erratic attitude most of the time.

Would have loved to see him play live.

Ian

That Steve Gadd isn't in there invalidates the entire thing. Not to mention Vinnie Coulaiuta, Billy Cobham, Peter Erskine...

Fluff article, exactly what you'd expect from RS..

What we all did in the past, who we played with years ago is just a memory now, hopefully good ones, I myself certainly had my share of performing with many very good artists years ago on stage also, ......people care about what is happening today. It's a different time and different world of music out there now. Embrace it, create it, be a part of it, and most of all let the music make you happy in side & if your lucky enough share the talent you have to uplift & share it with others so that they may enjoy it also.

I look at it simply this way, Donny...playing with a so called "big name" is not always an indication of how good a player we are, and, for most the most part, it is just a very memorable (and maybe humbling) experience.

I had a friend who always bragged he played with a certain big name guitar player, but it just turned out they were lucky enough the guy was recording in the next studio and was kind enough to play on one of their tunes.

Certainly memorable for him (and his band at the time), but hardly anything one would put at the top of their résumé.

Buddy Rich's talent was prodigious enough to overcome his well known faults...most of the time.

I still wish I could have seen him live, which would've been far more likely than ever being on the same stage with him.

Ian

Whereas, playing with players SO bad, a soulless machine is an acceptable alternative is quite telling..!

Let's put it this way... so far, I have never heard anything that remotely impressed me from those that are the first in line to slam other musicians and claim that playing with an arranger is 'better'. A trend, perhaps? The worse you play, the more you want to blame other players for it?

Big name or no name, if you have had trouble playing with competent musicians, step up YOUR game, don't blame those still willing to play with you...

For me, size of talent is only one facet. The point is that these legends, divas, what have you, don't HAVE to be azzholes, that just makes them nothing in my book. Thankfully, there are plenty of huge talents out there who are truly decent people.

In bands I've had I wouldn't tolerate any jerks and, by the same token, had I been a jerk, I wouldn't have expected to have been tolerated. Maybe the mutual respect we had for each other as people, in addition to the musical talent, was what kept us together all those years.