“He has this perpetual place as the greatest drum-set virtuoso who ever lived, and that still stands up today, though there are drummers who have developed incredible abilities through practice. “When I was coming up in the ’60s, Buddy was regarded as the greatest living drummer of the time,” Smith says. Maybe it’s the athletic quality of the instrument that leads to the kind of categorical claims delineated by Steve Smith, who spearheaded the excellent Rich-alumni project Buddy’s Buddies. We don’t say Sonny Rollins, Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young or Trane was the Best Tenor Saxophonist Ever. What is it about the drums that inspires the need for superlatives? In jazz we talk about our favorite bassists, saxophonists and guitarists, embracing the wondrous individuality of a multigenerational array of masters. Many of rock’s most famous drummers cited Rich as a primary influence, which is why he’s often the only jazz cat included on clickbait listicles purporting to reveal the trap set’s greatest practitioners. He was also a fine singer, a skilled tap dancer and a supremely self-confident raconteur who became a ubiquitous fixture on talk shows in the 1960s and ’70s, when network TV blithely reigned as the most pervasive and powerful cultural force in the United States. Rich wasn’t just a preternaturally gifted musician who started working in vaudeville as a toddler and took on the primary provider role for his family in his early teens. Part of what makes the drummer a lightning rod is that his legacy extends far beyond the world of jazz. And what’s striking today is that while the sturm und drang surrounding other era-defining jazz controversies has largely faded away-try raising a ruckus with a denunciation of Miles’ fusion-Rich has lost none of his argument-starting mojo. 30, 1917, Rich died three decades ago at the age of 69, his status as a household name undiminished until the end. Whether or not Buddy Rich is the greatest drummer in jazz history might be the least interesting question surrounding this singular artist.
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