Buddy Rich, Max Roach - Rich Versus Roach

Roach and Rich

If you love Big Band music, this was a great CD. Came in great condition(New)and was recieved at reasonable timeframe. Description was helpful and accurate. April 28, 2008

Part of the fun is figuring out who's playing.

Look, you either like Rich and Roach, or you don't, which is to say, you like jazz bands led by drummers or you don't. I think this CD re-issue gives everyone a glimpse into how early the technical showmanship made it to vinyl. If you can recall the execrable metal bands of the eighties, you'll instantly see the parallel between those and some of the tracks here, i.e. let's build a song around this one person's solo.

Of course, poor execution by guitarists thirty years removed does not really diminish this effort by Rich and Roach. Drum battles were more common back then, even more so in the thirties and forties, and the actual songs aren't just wrapppers for a solo. You're getting some good jazz along with some superior talent behind the kit.

The Krupa/Rich battles might be more to your taste, but I enjoyed the divergent styles of Rich and Roach a little more. Roach is definitely not as fast but he is probably more creative and interesting, which makes for a nice comparison for a first year musical scholar (which I am not).

-C

February 28, 2008

A Tie

There are two musical geniuses here at work and there is no clear winner. In the end, it really depends on your style preference. To my trained ear, Buddy is the better "drummer,"..is faster and better with his rudiments. Max is the better innovator. Though I prefer Buddy's playing, I fully recognize the genius of Max Roach and feel he is as important to the history and evolution of jazz music and drumming as is Buddy Rich.

So...take your pick. This is two masters at work, giants in their field. We may never see their likes again.
October 18, 2007

The sport of percussive pugilism.

Please note the title of this session--especially all those reviewers who are so quick to deny the competitiveness on the date and to insist on the "appropriateness" of each drummer's individual style. (Perhaps we've become too politically correct to engage in "cutting contests" and "battles of tough tenor saxophones.") It speaks well of Buddy that he's willing to risk his claim to the title "world's greatest drummer"--not against Gene Krupa but against arguably the best of the modernists; it speaks well of Roach that he's willing to be the challenger. (It's true, though, that after the death of Clifford Brown and leading several groups with very uneven results, Roach sadly became more of an "historic" figure than a vital, innovating musician beginning in the 1960s.)

Rich was a drum prodigy, a phenomenal technician around which a vaudeville act was built. Putting aside the aesthetics, the art, the music, he sounds practically superhuman on this recording--his drum rolls and pedal work on the bass drum are executed with the power and precision you would expect of a machine. And he was still doing this in the '70s when players like Cobham and Mouzon came on stage with four times the artillery, frequently with cymbals jacked up to ridiculous heights and facing outwards.

Sure, Rich was about show. But it wasn't accomplished with smoke and mirrors. He did it with two hands, two feet, and a simple drum set--as minimal as they come. And of course like Miles, Mingus, and a few others, there was no shortage of "attitude." Why not? April 4, 2007

Great Material, But...

As much as I agree that there is some nice material on here, and that both drummers play their sock (cymbals) off, it was clearly mixed to favour Rich in the "competition" angle. I doubt either musician viewed it that way, but I had to sell my copy of this because everytime I listened it would annoy me that Rich's parts were jacked way up in the mix, and Max sounded like he had been recorded in the bathroom. It isn't down to Max's drums at the time, though that could have contributed. It is the mix... I have the Newport Rebels LP, recorded a few years before this, and on it both Max and "Papa" Jo Jones play on a Booker Little composition called "Cliff Walk"- both kits come out loud and clear, in fact it is a monumentally exciting piece because of the propulsion of the twin drummers. I just wish the snazzy arrangements, great musicians and master drummers on this particular record could have been recorded with a little more care (and a little less bias) Still recommended- esp. for trapsmen! February 2, 2007

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