Damn tough choice to make. :/

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Agreed!

If he had put Max Roach into the mix, someone on that list would be on about 60% of the jazz recordings I've got.

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Just loaded Gene Krupa's "Let Me Off Downtown" and "Drummin' Man" albums onto my iPod last week. I find I don't have any Buddy Rich, so I'll have to rectify that.

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I am not even remotely qualified to discuss jazz drumming on the national level, but Buddy Rich has the reputation of being a totally impossible jackass. If even 1/10 of the things said about Rich are true, my response would then be, *even if just about everybody agrees that Gene Krupa is an inferior drummer,* I would want Krupa in my band rather than Rich. For any moderate-sized ensemble playing (and possibly for any ensemble playing, though this would be hard to defend in a large symphony orchestra) the better you get along with somebody, the better your gig will go. And you've played in bands, so you would know about this first-hand.

Nate

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Agree it's a tough choice, but I hadda go with Gene because of his preferred choice of smoke. :-)

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I should be talking about Mr. Rich in the past tense, as he is deceased. (I didn't check wikipedia for Gene Krupa.) His mercurial moods are discussed freely near the end of his wikipedia article, but he was obviously quite functional/workable/even competent as a bandleader. I may have had only part of the story. (Note, though, that I do know some other individuals -- local, not national -- who do just fine running and booking their own bands, but with reputations for being more than a little difficult.)

Nate

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The nickname running around backstage when he played at Drake University in the 70s was Ruddy Bitch ...

But, if you watched him play with his band, it was obvious that he played WITH his band. I have never seen a drummer so effectively support a soloist.

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I found an even earlier instance of this - on the 1968 Manfred Mann LP "Mighty Garvey!" - one of the more jokey tracks on the album starts in a club with an announcer introducing "the Ruddy Bitch Trio"...this track segues into "The Mighty Quinn" of all things!

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Krupa died October 16, 1973. Rich died April 2, 1987.

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...and reportedly his last words were:

Nurse (paraphrasing): Before we administer the anesthesia Mr Rich, is there anything you're allergic to?

BR: Yeah. Country and Western music.

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I haven't voted yet....can't....decide....must.....

Certainly Krupa was the first (or one of the first) "stars" of the drums; I am trying to recall who Rich played with on a national level in the pre-bop days. He was already like 30 when he played with Bird, by which time the big-band era was for all intents over (after Miller, the war, and Benny Goodman breaking down to a sextet). I have not heard much Krupa outside a big band framework, though his drum battle LPs with Rich show him certainly able to anchor a small group. The "Krupa and Rich" album on Verve (Clef?) is a fine document. And it swings.

Rich took what Krupa started and took it all the way, and to the Nth degree, thru a big band renaissance and even some rock-flavored repertoire. While Krupa was a featured soloist with whatever group he was with, it was *Rich's* band, and by & large the arrangements and whole style of the band reflected this, not just in name.

So while it couldn't have happened without Krupa, it may well have stopped at the big band era if not for Rich....so with a twirl of the sticks to Gene, I am going with Buddy. Despite the "bus tapes".

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