@stormyrider Philly Joe Jones is real good. Has some great licks in the above. If Miles liked him best then that is a big compliment. Miles knew music forward and backwards and inside and out. 

Gene, Buddy and several other drummers who worked in New York often in the 1930's would go to the Savoy Club in Harlem in uptown Manhattan where Chic Webb and his band was the house band. He hired Ella Fitzgerald as his singer. 

Buddy Rich and Gene Krupa and other greats of the late 30's, 1940's, 1950's etc,  all were crazy about a hunchback 4 feet tall drummer named Chic Webb. His band was top notch and Webb was incredibly fast and always right in the pocket. He had a very small kit but about 4 medal monkey skulls on his bass drum. 

Too bad Chic Webb died young in 1938 and apparently there is no known footage of him. 

Here you can tell how fast his hands and arms were. 

thanks for posting. Chick Webb was a beast.

In my estimation, he's the father of big band drumming, which makes him the grandfather of all of modern drumming

@stormyrider Here is Buddy again. His command of his cymbals at the beginning here is impressive. The last third of this piece to me blows by John Bonham, Ginger Baker, Alex Van Halen etc. Apparently Buddy was the best in our lifetimes. The only thing I don't like about Buddy is only playing jazz and big band. 

I'm not a drummer so would enjoy your critique of this right here. 

that was very cool. Love the sounds out of the cymbals. The L hand roll with the right hand varying was great. The stick part was cool too - you could see his push-pull technique (which he perfected) with the L hand.

Technically, I agree, Buddy was the best. He may have been the best at drum solos. 

As we discussed before, there were other guys who were great in different ways. Elvin Jones was a dynamo - you had to be to keep up with Coltrane. It would have been interesting to see how Buddy would have done in that type of setting. It's a bit odd, IMO that Buddy didn't play much with smaller groups.

Anyway, it's all good.  I learn from all of these guys. 

@stormyrider Thanks for explaining the technical side of the Rich video. 

I found some Miles with Elvin on drums earlier and it is just top notch musicianship from the entire band. Miles was such an innovator and student of music. 

Don't miss the CRAZY WILD PIANO SOLO on this track!!! You ain't never heard a piano solo like this!!

Butch/Jaimoe

Jim Gordon

Ginger Baker

John Bonham

Buddy Rich would have never passed the BB King test. Great drummer, but POS human being. If I'd been on that bus the day he was screaming at his band, it would have been my last day on the gig cause I'd have slapped the dog poop out of him. Jazz is kind of like a banjo. A little bit goes a long ways. Tell me something he did that will stand the test of time like "Layla" or "When the Levee Breaks" or "Whipping Post."

@wooddog   I love all the drummers on your list. 

Buddy was faster and more advanced technically than our favorite rock drummers. 

But you are right about him personally. He was an egotistical jerk regularly and demanding. 

Buddy has a ton of videos on YouTube ( he died in 1987 so he didn't put them there) and people who play drums or like drums study them and try to understand and cop how he could do such things on the drums. 

Also I agree about jazz and blue grass music. They involved about 5 percent of my listening time. 

There isn't a particular piece like Whipping Post that serves as a milestone for Buddy. Buddy always bragged he has played with the greatest musicians in the world. But they are giants in big band jazz such as Tommy Dorsey, Artie Shaw, Harry James, Count Basie. 

Here is Buddy in a short clip from 1945, one year before I was born, with Tommy Dorsey who led a hot band the young people of the 1940's loved. 

Taylor Hawkins dead at 50. Found dead in a Columbia motel room where the Foo Fighters were playing. 

Buddy's band with Rotten Kid in 1967. Says 1968 but the hawks in comments say it's 1967 because Buddy was playing a different make of drums beginning in 1968. 

I think all of the guys here have passed on. But MAN ARE THEY HOT!!!! Great musicians!! 

Never heard of this drummer until I saw him on TV tonight. It was a 1998 show. He is retired now at age 85. 

But he is incredibly good. One of the best I've seen! Check it out. You'll be very impressed. 

Buddy Rich was a one trick pony. He played jazz. Never heard him play soul, rock & roll, or country. Obviously a POS human being if the legendary "bus tapes" are legit. 

To me it's a shame Duane never got to play with any of the surviving swing era drummers. Those guys in the '30s played for dancers and had that rhythm that would have suited Duane's love of the back beat so well and to me better than the crash crash crash of the rock drummers.

@wooddog That isn't Buddy Rich above playing but it's the same bag I guess. It's Charley Antoloni. Some jazz drummer in Europe. 

The bus taped are real. There are three different recordings the piano player captured with a hidden recorder. He wanted people to eventually know how difficult it was to be in Buddy's band. Buddy was a perfectionist and an egotistical jerk at the same time. But they didn't let those tapes out until after Buddy died in 1987. 

Buddy didn't like rock and roll or country music. I've heard him play soul music but instrumental versions. 

But most drummers are kinda one trick ponies. Butch Trucks and Jaimoe didn't vary far from their bag most of the time. John Bonham the same. 

Buddy did like some rock drummers. His daughter made him take her to see some rock bands. Buddy really liked Steve Gadd and he saw Led Zeppelin with his daughter and liked John Bonham pretty well but said John Bonham and most rock drummers don't know how to hold the sticks correctly. Buddy often made that complaint about other drummers for using matched grip rather than traditional grip. And ironically there are several videos on YouTube of Buddy Rich playing matched grip on part of some songs. 

Here he is in 1948 doing exactly what he said was the wrong way. 

@tenorsfan Yes Duane would have really enjoyed playing with those old jazz and swing drummers. 

I'm deeply impressed with the jazz the Allman Brothers did play especially during the Chuck/Lamar lineup. 

Jaimoe and Lamar Williams are outstanding here doing a jazz bag. Jaimoe is on the left if your headphones are on correctly or Jaimoe is on the opposite side from Chuck Leavell no matter. 

This is some real fine jazz music to me. 

Dave Weckl gave a drum clinic last night at a local drum shop last night. He's an amazing drummer, if you haven't heard him check him out. He played a lot with Chick Corea and has his own fusion band. He's also a great educator and seems like a genuinely nice guy.

During the Q+A, someone asked him about Buddy Rich's single handed roll. He just shook his head and said, "I don't know. I look at what Buddy does, and I say, I know you're human, but c'mon man..."

@stormyrider I think the one hand roll appears early in this solo. Watch the left hand. It sounds like two sticks on the snare drum. 

The late Joe Morello was another who was probably technically better than most rock drummers. 

Oh yea, I've seen it, and I kinda see what he is doing. Weckl showed the motion also, but much slower. Doing that motion, which is complex, at the speed that Rich did it, is nothing short of amazing. Hearing Weckl comments about it was pretty cool.