Scott K Fish: Interviewing Advice from Buddy Rich

larryace said:
Spinning Wheel certainly does have a drum break but it's only 1 bar, at around 1:30. No 4 bar break there. Maybe Buddy was just citing a favorite break, regardless of the length.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qi9sLkyhhlE
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That was my thought when I first read Buddy say that about Spinning Wheel, but the Shadow Wilson break isn't four bars, either. And not only Buddy, but Freddie Gruber, described it as such. I think it was a put-on, personally. Buddy didn't read music, but he could count.
 
Maybe Buddy and Freddie were thinking of Queer Street in 2/4 time? That would make Shadow Wilson's break after the tenor sax solo a four-bar break.

Bobby Colomby's break is certainly not four-bars. I'm sure Buddy knew that. His point was simply that Colomby's drum break was perfect for that song.

Maybe some Drummerworld fan can find the Mattingly/Rich interview and get the exact language. Meanwhile, I'll see if I can get it from Rick Mattingly.

skf
 
Cool blog, I've had a few interview moments of my own:
Sitting in a hotel room with Bill Bruford in DC 1998 and at the end he asks for directions to National Cathedral. I don't know, since I am from the suburbs. He waves his hand and says "you're all ignorant, aren't you?"( I still don't know whether he meant Americans, journalists or drummers.) To his credit, he was extremely nice to me the rest of the time, even at his gig the next night. That comment took me aback though. My hero just called me ignorant to my face.

As a rule, famous drummers I have interviewed do not like being interviewed by drummers. So if you ever have the chance, don't blurt that out that you are a drummer. They don't care, they aren't impressed, and most of them are bored as hell with meeting drummers.
 
Zero Mercury Drummer said:
Cool blog, I've had a few interview moments of my own:
Sitting in a hotel room with Bill Bruford in DC 1998 and at the end he asks for directions to National Cathedral. I don't know, since I am from the suburbs. He waves his hand and says "you're all ignorant, aren't you?"( I still don't know whether he meant Americans, journalists or drummers.) To his credit, he was extremely nice to me the rest of the time, even at his gig the next night. That comment took me aback though. My hero just called me ignorant to my face.
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If you withheld the name, told the above story and asked us to guess which drummer said that, I think we'd all know it was Bruford. His personality is just indefensible.
 
Really? I've never met the man face to face, but every video I've seen with him has not led me to that conclusion. The only personal contact I've had with him is a few emails from a couple years ago. Nothing involved but he certainly seemed personable and professional enough.

Not that any of that matters as I still enjoy his work, whether or not he's a peach or a pit.
 
It's probably not fair for me to say that. He just comes across as insufferable whenever I see him in an interview or read what he has to say.
 
larryace said:
Spinning Wheel certainly does have a drum break but it's only 1 bar, at around 1:30. No 4 bar break there. Maybe Buddy was just citing a favorite break, regardless of the length.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qi9sLkyhhlE
Click to expand...


... or more likely he confused beats with bars.

Even so, a crazy break, ends with a 4 stroke ruff and a tap. Who's to say perfect for the song really?

Bonham IMO did a lot of 'perfect for the song' breaks, those two probably wouldn't have been listening to LZ and other alternative crap of the day tho.

I would bet $500 Buddy Rich would've loved to have been on that BST's album, that's his flavor of music hipped-up by some kids at the time.
 
JimFiore said:
Really? I've never met the man face to face, but every video I've seen with him has not led me to that conclusion. The only personal contact I've had with him is a few emails from a couple years ago. Nothing involved but he certainly seemed personable and professional enough.

Not that any of that matters as I still enjoy his work, whether or not he's a peach or a pit.
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The impression of Bruford that I got, spending a little time with him, is that he is a generally nice but sometimes prickly guy. He is also an extremely intelligent and sophisticated man who is somewhat misplaced in the rock music world. Similar to Robert Fripp.
He sat down with me and spilled on making "Close to the Edge," Crimson, and spent probably an hour answering my super-fan questions. (Interview was really good, I will post online at some point). The two Earthworks sets I experienced the next night from about a foot away were unforgettable.
In the interview, I got the impression he is a little tired of sitting down with drummers and talking about drums. Especially young enthusiastic Americans like myself. Yet he answered my questions. When you consider this is a man who had gold records at the age of 17 or 18 it makes sense.
He's kind of over it. He hardly does interviews anymore and retired from the business.
 
I'm assuming you've read his autobio then. I found it a great read and Mr. Bruford clearly has a talent with words. The funny thing is, when I watch old videos of his band, Bruford, he seems to be rather shy. It's like he's uncomfortable being the leader or voice of the band when he's addressing the audience. In later years, say post 2000, he seems to be much more relaxed in front of the crowd.
 
JimFiore said:
I'm assuming you've read his autobio then. I found it a great read and Mr. Bruford clearly has a talent with words. The funny thing is, when I watch old videos of his band, Bruford, he seems to be rather shy. It's like he's uncomfortable being the leader or voice of the band when he's addressing the audience. In later years, say post 2000, he seems to be much more relaxed in front of the crowd.
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I haven't read his bio yet but it's at the top of my list when I get a chance. Been looking forward to that!
The old Bruford band might have been the geekiest collection of musicians ever, but they could play. I got "The Bruford Tapes" at age 18 and I was a fan for life. I didn't even know music like that existed.
 
I never met Bill Bruford in person. Our interview was by phone. It was one of my rare MD interviews for which I wish I had been better prepared. Not that I was careless in setting out to interview Mr. Bruford. Once he and I were into the interview, I realized I was ill-prepared in a couple of areas. Most of all, I think, I was woefully ignorant about Simmons drums.

I was aware of electronic drums. The first drummer to use electronic drums that I know of was Michael Shrieve. Maybe Syndrums? When I interviewed Bruford, I started out thinking of electronic drums as producing that early Star Wars laser gun effect - and nothing more.

I didn't understand, really, about sound sampling. That's why I confessed to Bruford in that MD interview, "Having no earlier audio reference, when I listened to [King Crimson albums] Discipline and Beat, I didn't hear anything that jumped out as sounding like the Simmons kit."

What's missing from the printed version of our interview is the silence following my confession. It last about 5 seconds, but felt as if it lasted 5 hours. Bill was very gracious in his response, and throughout the interview. But it was clear to us both that he was an electronic drum pioneer, and I was... woefully ignorant!

Rather than get freaked out, I knew my Simmons ignorance put me with the majority of drummers. Why not use it as an opportunity? Which is what I did. So part of the Bruford interview is him giving me - and everyone else reading the interview - an introduction to Simmons drums.

skf
 
Drumsinhisheart said:
I confess I expected to hear something pretty startling but, without an explanation from Buddy I have no idea why the Shadow Wilson performance effected him dramatically enough to claim it was the best.
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The most perfect Drum Break ever recorded as Buddy Rich says is here on Drummerworld on the Shadow Wilson page - and yes, he is PERFECT!!!

Check out:

http://www.drummerworld.com/drummers/Shadow_Wilson.html

(scroll down to Sounds: Queer Street - at 2:45)

http://cdn-x.drummerworld.com/Sound/shadowwilsonqueerstreet.mp3

enjoy - Bernhard
 
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