The biography of the man in the above writeups adequately cover his temper, his love of karate, his showmanship and his sense of humour. He was a no-nonsense, break your face tough guy from the Frank Sinatra school. Urban legend says his last words, fighting for breath in what was to be his last heart attack, answering a query from an EMT as to whether he had any allergies, was "Yes. Country music." Sure the man could be an arrogant prick, but he had the chops to back up the swagger.
But what isn't mentioned, and is vitally missing, is just how influential and how damn good the man was.
It's rare that people start a "who was the greatest" discussion and keep coming up with the same name over and over. Though there are some legendary drummers up there, most people will concede that Rich is probably the best player that ever lived.
He took a lesson here and there, but for the most part was self-taught, pushing the envelope of the drums on raw talent. Even today, it's hard (if you only listen to his soloing and don't watch the YouTube videos) that he pulled that much sound out of one tom, two floor toms, a couple of cymbals, a hi-hat, and a snare, a relatively sparse kit in a medium that eventually spawned Alex Van Halen style kits with more drums than one could concievably ever use.
He was able to drum on any surface, even picking up the sticks and playing them against themselves, pushing and pulling the sticks in a traditional grip to tap out rapid fire rhythms. One of his trademark soloing pieces was to pull out a rapid fire single stroke roll, one of the hardest rudiments to do right, and then pull the sticks up to near vertical (taking the assistance of the rebound from the drum out of the equation altogether) and tap out the rhythm on the snare rim, without missing a beat or losing the speed, and then going back to the middle of the drum, going at a speed most drummers would find impossible to match. To put this into more accessible language - a single stroke roll is tapping left, right, left, right, etc. which, at blazing speeds, is hard to even get the sticks to do, never mind co-ordinate to fall evenly between the beats of the other. It looks and sounds impressive to the layman, but to anyone who's ever tried to really play the drums, it's insane.
If you watch any Youtube videos, you see a man whose mastery of stick technique is complete. At rapid speeds his sticks become a blur, but his body stays relaxed, his hands opening up and his elbows and wrists naturally executing every move flawlessly, at any speed. In fact, just watching the way Buddy held the sticks and moved his arms is a textbook in and of itself. His dynamic control was second to none as well - able to play soft to loud, slow to fast with perfect control without the "change in gear" most drummers get right when the speed starts to change from slower tempos to fast riffing.
A swing rhythm is relatively simple, but Buddy was able to make the medium a beautiful backdrop for his incredible talent, throwing in accents and ruffs and throwing in some bass drum notes just so. His feet were no slouch either, and the embellishments he put into that style of music were incendiary.
I'm not really that much of a fan of swing, I'm more of a jazz player, so when it comes to the actual music, I prefer the work of Joe Morello of the Dave Brubeck Quartet. But in terms of sheer raw talent, Buddy has a slight advantage over Joe, who is no slouch himself. The world would do well to see another man like Rich. Every time a man like that shows up, he simply redefines what it's possible to do.
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