Buddy Rich Research Paper

It is very rare to find top jazz musician who does not read. However, there are some of the best Jazz musicians do not read, for example Buddy Rich and Bix Beiderbecke. Although not being able to read music means nothing about the person’s musical ability and ear-trained musicians are still trained musicians, but they do face problems. Buddy Rich (1917-1987), was one of the greatest legendary Jazz drummer and band leader. According to his Biography, he began to play drums when he was 18 months old and performed regularly on Broadway when he was four. He received a lot of award such as The Downbeat Magazine Hall of Fame Award, the Modern Drummer Magazine Hall of Fame Award and the Jazz Unlimited Immortals of Jazz Award . There was much more
This shows he is a gifted musician and has natural sense of music and especially rhythm. Based on an interview with Bobby Shew, one of the trumpeters of Buddy Rich’s Big Band, he answered that Buddy Rich could not read music . Buddy Rich would always have a drummer reads and plays for him initially during rehearsals. He has to listen to what they have played to memorized the chart.
With his talent, it is not a big deal because he would only have to listen to it once before he plays. But without the ability to read music, he could not play with a new arrangement when there wasn’t any drummer to read the score or chart for him.
Bix Beiderbecke (1903-1931), was an American jazz cornetist, jazz pianist, and composer. He was one of the great Jazz musicians, and also one of the most influential jazz soloists of the 1920’s. “Singin’ the Blues” and “I’m coming, Virginia” are examples of his significant works. He demonstrated his unusual tone and also his talent in improvisation in these tunes. With his unusual tone and his original improvising style, Louis Armstrong is the only competitor among all the cornetists in the 1920’s, but due to their different styles and sound, we could not tell who is better than