[Dixielandjazz] Buddy Rich - music reader?

[Stephen G Barbone]

On Feb 23, 2008, at 2:25 PM, BillSargentDrums at aol.com wrote: (Polite  
snip)
>
>
> One more thing, about Buddy Rich not reading music... I don't buy  
> it. There's a big difference between not being able to read, not  
> reading well, and not wanting to read.
>

Hi Bill:

I agree about the differences. It is certainly hard to believe Buddy  
could not read music, given his performances. But then, here is a  
direct quote that is posted on Rich's "official" website> from a  
remembrance by John La Barbarbera (composer/arranger and trumpeter  
with Rich's band in the 1960s)

"That night he blew the break. Totally blew it and stopped the band.  
We were in shock. Having never experienced this before, we just looked  
around at each other. The audience was deadly silent. Buddy yelled to  
Pat (my brother acted as musical director at times because Buddy  
couldn't read music) "pick it up before the break." Pat yelled out the  
appropriate rehearsal number and we were off again. As you can well  
imagine, this time he nailed it and the audience went nuts."  - John  
La Barbarbera (composer/arranger and trumpeter with Rich's band in the  
1960s)

Cheers,
Steve