Bernard "Buddy" Rich

 Bernard "Buddy" Rich (September 30, 1917 – April 2, 1987)

He was a jazz drummer and bandleader. Widely considered one of the most influential drummers of all time and known for his virtuoso technique, power, and speed, Rich was billed as "the world's greatest drummer" during his career. Rich first played with a major group in 1937 with Joe Marsala and guitarist Jack Lemaire. In 1938 he was hired to play in Tommy Dorsey's orchestra, where he met and performed with Frank Sinatra. He then played with Bunny Berigan (1938) and Artie Shaw (1939); during his tenure with Shaw, he instructed a 14-year-old Mel Brooks in drumming for a short period. In 1942 Rich joined the United States Marine Corps, in which he served as a judo instructor. He did not see combat, and was discharged for medical reasons. In addition to Tommy Dorsey (1939–42, 1945, 1954–55), Rich also played with Benny Carter (1942), Harry James (1953–56–62, 1964, 1965), Les Brown, Charlie Ventura, and Jazz at the Philharmonic. He also led his own band and performed with all-star groups including Charlie Parker and his Orchestra featuring Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonious Monk (on the 1950 album Bird and Diz). In the early '50s, Rich again played with Dorsey and began to perform with trumpeter Harry James, an association which lasted until 1966. Perhaps his most popular later performance was a big-band arrangement of a medley derived from Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story, first released on the 1966 album Swingin' New Big Band. The "West Side Story Medley" is a complex big-band arrangement which highlights Rich's ability to blend the rhythm of his drumming into his band's playing of the musical chart. Penned by Bill Reddie, Rich received the West Side Story arrangement of Leonard Bernstein's melodies from the famed musical in the mid-1960s and found it challenging.

After the "West Side Story Medley", Rich's most famous performance was the "Channel One Suite" by Bill Reddie. Buddy Rich continued touring and performing until the end of his life. In early March 1987 he was touring in New York when he was hospitalized after suffering a paralysis on his left side that physicians initially believed had been caused by a stroke. He was transferred to California to UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles for tests, where doctors discovered and removed a brain tumor on March 16. He was discharged a week later, but had been receiving daily chemotherapy treatments at the hospital when, on April 2, 1987, Rich died of sudden, unexpected respiratory and cardiac failure after his treatment for the malignant brain tumor. He is interred at Westwood Memorial Park.