Buddy Rich was a jazz drumming legend whose drumming placed him in the highest tier of jazz drummers. He was a natural player who picked up drumming without instruction. At the age of less than two, he was performing in vaudeville. He didn’t read music, but his ear for music was so good that after one run through a chart, he would have it memorized. He played in every jazz setting, as both sideman and leader, small groups and big bands. Buddy put together a new big band in 1966 and kept it working until his death in 1987, no … Continue reading Jazz Birthdays: Buddy Rich (1917) and Oscar Pettiford (1922)