Buddy Rich Photos contributed by Fred Marcin

NOTE: This performance is free to listen to, but may not be republished elsewhere without my specific permission. All rights reserved by Fred Marcin, owner of this recording.

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The music!

Fred's comments on the concert:

Notes about the Chevy Chase High School concert, January 24, 1980

As usual I was excited to see Buddy and the band. Even at the young age of eighteen then, I fully understood the gravity of being able to witness firsthand an absolutely one-of-a-kind genius in performance. This concert was recorded by me using a regular mono cassette recorder sitting on my lap somewhere in the second row; you can see my vantage point by looking at the requisite photos I took, which graciously appear on Mike James’ fantastic website. (Thank you, Mike!)

The band is in excellent form. This was the first time I had the pleasure of experiencing Buddy playing with the great bass player, Wayne Pedzwater; Wayne’s feature solo is simply astounding here. And I’ve never heard another bass player play a meaner sounding intro to “Birdland” than Wayne does. Andy Fusco, as well as everyone else, solo and play just superbly. Of particular note is the solo trumpet/flugelhorn player, an older bald black man whom I’ve never seen before or since this concert. I don’t know who he is, but his solos are easily some of the best most soulful ones I’ve heard played in Buddy’s band. And I can attest that Buddy was really very happy with this player that night. Take special note of the flugelhorn solo in “Basically Blues” as it is a master class in itself. I mean I almost thought it was Dizzy playing.

Another aspect I really appreciated about this concert was the tempos. As a professional drummer I quite agree with Buddy in that tempos should breathe and develop. And I grant Buddy’s every right to subjectively determine tempos for each chart as he pleases. But the tempos are often necessarily affected by his mood and by how long the chart has been in the book. In this case I really enjoy the fact that all the tempos are really excellent here, in my humble opinion, and each chart is allowed to fully express itself. “Good News” is a case example where the tempos adhere closely to the original intent; it is slower than later renditions and therefore ultimately even more satisfying to listen to.

Please excuse the occasional overly-enthusiastic callouts by the two teenage guys right in front of me during this concert. They were trying a little too hard to sound “hip” in their admirations; even a lady sitting behind them had to finally ask them to stop at one point later on. Oh well. At least I take solace in that, had they done that in Buddy’s New York nightclub back in the day, they would have been personally escorted out of the place, maybe even by Buddy himself.

Buddy’s “West Side Story” solo? Its pure genius in action and you can view the photos I took of it while listening to it.

The production quality is what it is given the nature of a mono recording without level-metering control. Yet there is no real distortion to speak of, it’s fairly well balanced overall, and I’m entirely happy Buddy’s bass drum playing effectively punches through where it needs to. This is one of those recordings that is best listened to loudly on a good living room stereo system and not on headphones; I listened to it loud that way while I was in the kitchen cooking and could have sworn the band were playing live in the other room!

I’m gratified to be able to share yet another night of the fabulous Buddy Rich band in performance in front of a justifiably amazed and gratified full house of concert goers. I think it is clearly a testament to Buddy’s genius and indefatigable musical integrity that one can come across so many completely previously unknown and inconsequential recorded performances of him and still, ALWAYS, hear a multitude of consistently ridiculous levels of superb music being played. I mean, the known and unknown recordings keep pointing out that the man pulled this stuff off night after night thousands of times!

By the way, whoever “tensioned” Buddy’s drums that evening was completely spot on! (Remember the distinction Buddy made between tensioning and tuning, folks.)

Enjoy.

Fred Marcin