[Dixielandjazz] Buddy Rich?

[ROBERT R. CALDER]

It may have been the Scottish baritone saxophonist Jay Craig who recounted the anecdote which follows, on a BBC radio tribute to Buddy Rich.
Jay was not at all unenthusiastic about the experience of working in Buddy's band, and rather liked Buddy's singing, which could be heard at times on the band bus.
Buddy it seems liked singing. 
And how far was all the rude stuff which recommends itself to some Youtubers a device for being the boss and a parody or an act to keep both the drummer-leader and his stress as well as the band qua disciplined unit in order? 

anecdote: Buddy did not it seems relish the engagement during which he alternated with Dusty Springfield. 
He had a member of the band go to the most expensive florist in town and acquire one of their grandest delivery boxes, empty.
This he had filled with ground glass and delivered to Ms. Springfield with a message which made some reference to her voice. 

post script: I remember the late Ken Gallacher still obviously shocked (really!) as he told me a long time after about the time he was visiting Yank Lawson and Yank gave him the equivalent of a blinfold test. Ken remembered still being a nasty shade of green and Yank with a chuckle said that the level of abuse was not abnormal in a Toscanini rehearsal. 
And then there was Stokowski, who had arranged to lunch with an old colleague the day before rehearsals started -- and the day after what had been a pleasant lunch Stokowski threw the same man out of the orchestra during the first rehearsal. 
People these days can be too literal-minded