September 30, 1917 – The world was given Buddy Rich.

Sometime in 1977 – I became the hippest 10-year-old cat I knew.

I bounded into Ron Whitney’s Drum & Guitar Studio in Iselin, NJ ready to take on the world; drums were cool, and I was about to wow Ron with my mad percussion skills. He handed me a set of sticks and what would become my guidebook for the next 12 years: Buddy Rich’s Modern Interpretation of Snare Drum Rudiments. Needless to say, Ron was not wowed, and I quickly learned the term “woodshedding“.

After staring at the black & white picture on the front cover for a few weeks, I started learning just who this guy was; I mean he had to be pretty good, even my parents knew who he was, and they knew nothing about music. Slowly but surely I found out. I’d hear one of Buddy’s tunes on WBGO now and then, but in 1981, Buddy reached the pinnacle of fame for the under-15 crowd: a guest spot on The Muppet Show (Yes, that drum battle is below). Ron told me stories about Buddy (Buddy knew Ron as “the Cat from Tomatoland”); I caught Buddy live a couple of times thanks to my sister (Mom & Dad were just not hip enough to take us, but my sister was; after all, she was taking drum lessons from Ron too!).

So on the 92nd Anniversary of Buddy’s birth, here are a collection of videos of the master at work:

Drum Battles

… and of course:

Solos

Full Tunes

Last, but not least, here’s a “video” I found on YouTube that sort of confirms all the stories Ron Whitney told me about Buddy’s legendary temper. This is NOT SAFE FOR WORK OR SMALL CHILDREN or those who are offended by certain words:

There are about a million more clips on YouTube, so rather than post them all here, check it out and get hip to Buddy.