Traps - The Drum Wonder: The Life of Buddy Rich

by Mel Tormé

(Book). Now back in print, this bestseller by Mel Torme is a brilliant biography of his friend of forty years, Buddy Rich, who was one of the most famous drummers of the Swing Era, having starred in the Artie Shaw and Tommy Dorsey bands. His career started when he was two years old in his parents' Vaudeville act, and by the time he was four he was the highest paid child performer in the world. The Buddy Rich story is a fascinating one, as much for what it says about the world of American music and entertainment as for the remarkable life it portrays. Drawing from interviews and many personal reminiscences, Torme packs this biography with vivid, often funny, anecdotes. His personal touch and his in-depth knowledge of jazz make for a moving, insightful, and often hilarious biography. 233 pages, 6-1/2 x 9-1/2 Softcover

Genres: Music, Biography, Nonfiction, Jazz

233 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Melvin Howard Tormé, nicknamed The Velvet Fog, was an American musician, known for his jazz singing. He was also a jazz composer and arranger, a drummer, an actor in radio, film, and television, and the author of five books. He co-wrote the classic holiday song "The Christmas Song" (also known as "Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire") with Bob Wells.

Reviews

[Marvin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Back in the late 70s, I was given tickets by a friend who worked at a radio station to see drummer Buddy Rich at the Starwood, a club in Hollywood. I was a big jazz fan but I tended to gravitate to the modern stuff a la Coltrane, Miles, and Coleman. In my mind, Buddy Rich was a relic of the Swing Era. I found out I was wrong. His big band was great but Buddy Rich was incredible. It was like watching a magician and thinking, "How in the hell can he do that?". There may have been more innovative drummers but on a level of pure technical virtuosity, Buddy Rich was to the drums what Art Tatum was to the piano and Buddy Defranco was to the clarinet. If you know anything about jazz, you know that is high praise indeed.

Traps - The Drum Wonder:The Life of Buddy Rich is written by his long-time friend Mel Torme, a jazz giant in his own right. He also proves to be an excellent writer. Torme exhibits a great fondness for his friend. But unlike other biographies written by friends and family, Torme is not afraid to examine The drummer's darker side which could be quite dark indeed. Rich was known for being abrasive, an immature practical joker and a scrapper. His scrabbles with Frank Sinatra are legendary and he once got into a fist fight with Dusty Springfield! But he was also a contradiction from the jazz man stereotype. He rarely drank, didn't use drugs except for marijuana and he was generous to a fault. What I didn't know about him was that he became a star on the vaudeville circuit at the age of two. That was where the vaudeville stage name of Trap the Drum Wonder came into being. He was the highest paid child star in the early 20s, only topped by Charlie Chaplin's prodigy Jackie Googan in the mid 20s. (Yes, that would be the same Jackie Googan that played Uncle Fester in The Adams Family). In his late teens, he took up the occupation as a jazz drummer much to the disfavor of his father who wanted him to continue in vaudeville. Soon he was highly in demand with the up and coming swing bands and later started his own band.

Buddy Rich's Big Band was unusual in the fact that its greatest success was in the 60s and 70s well beyond the pinnacle of the big band era. Mel Torme, who was not a bad drummer himself as well as being a great jazz singer, charts Rich's career from the early bands of Artie Shaw and Tommy Dorsey to his success with his own band. The author also has a deft knowledge of music and drumming and explain why Rich is important to the jazz scene. Torme also has a good grip of Rich's infamous wit. In the middle of his first heart attack while being wheeled into the operating room, a nurse asked him if he was allergic to anything. "Yes", he replied, "Country and western music."

This is one of the better music biographies I have read with a good balance of personal recollections and musical insight. Highly recommended to drum aficionados, jazz fans and music lovers.

As a parting gift, I leave you with a clip of a duel between Buddy Rich and my second favorite drummer

[Roland Curit · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was a high school drummer in the early 1980s. Back then I knew two things about Buddy Rich. He was the best drummer in the world and he was arrogant and mean. I had several of his albums and our high school band got to see him play a few years before his death. Aside from that, the only time I ever saw him interact with other people was on the Merv Griffin show. He was always cracking jokes at other people’s expense. After reading his biography, his whole persona now makes sense to me. His parents were vaudeville actors and they put Buddy “Traps” on stage to play drums at the age of 2. He was a sensation and he never left the stage – and he never got a formal education. This explains his lack of social skills. The biography was written by his best friend Mel Torme, another giant in the industry. In fact, the whole book is littered with the biggest names in 20th century jazz, including Tommy Dorsey, Artie Shaw, Frank Sinatra, Gene Krupa, etc. Torme does an amazing job describing the minute details of long past events and recalling 50 year old conversations. He would mention specific things that happened in the 1930’s, and thanks to YouTube, I could watch a video and visually capture the atmosphere – almost like watching a documentary. Buddy was a prankster, loved expensive cars, learned karate and smoked weed. He would chew up and spit out musicians, bands and drum manufacturers like they were material objects that could easily be replaced. He died from complications of a brain tumor in 1987. Despite my admiration for his skills, I used to think Buddy was an a**whole. Now that I have read his book, I understand why he acted the way he did. We want our heroes to be the best at their craft while maintaining a sense of humility. Buddy was the former, but he never had a chance to learn the latter.

[Sebastian Palmer · Rating 4 out of 5]

"When it comes to my playing, I take no prisoners." Buddy Rich

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. In fact it was deuced hard to put down. Writing in an accessibly informal style, Tormé has produced a very engaging portrait of Rich, warts and all.

Scholarly it ain't, although it is well researched. But Tormé's unique position as both close personal friend to Rich and fellow music biz pro (a talented drummer as well as singer, etc.) position him wonderfully well to give a colourful account of a supremely colourful character.

Whether or not all the anecdotes are true, underlying it all is a well drawn portrait of an incredible person. Tormé quotes Krupa as saying two particularly memorable things about Rich: firstly that he was "the greatest drummer ever to draw breath", and secondly that he was a one-off: he "broke the mold [sic]."

In Tormé's warm portrait history and mythology entwine in an amorous embrace, and their love-child is the irrepressible, bombastic larger-than-life character that was the one and only Buddy Rich. A ripping good yarn, full of history both painfully real and cloudily legendary, Tormé's book is a wonderful epitaph for a superlative talent.

[Gregory · Rating 4 out of 5]

Singer Mel Tormé was a good friend of Buddy Rich’s, although like all of Rich’s friends, he also went through periods of estrangement. Rich was notoriously prickly, but he was also known as one of the great jazz drummers, perhaps the best in terms of technique. His story is amazing in many respects, as he began performing on Vaudeville stages with no instruction (Traps! The Drum Wonder!) before his second birthday, ending up as jazz musician, against his parents’ wishes. He became a featured side musician in jazz big bands and ultimately fronted his own band for many years. Rich was a friend of Johnny Carson’s and appeared many times on the Tonight Show, giving him an audience unmatched among jazz musicians.

The book is engaging, and Tormé has a number of important strengths as an author, especially his personal involvement with Rich and the cooperation of his family in writing the book. Tormé got some of his material literally from Rich’s deathbed, and he was on his way to the hospital to visit him when the news came out that Rich had died. Tormé was an amateur drummer, and he explains to the layperson why Rich’s technique was so superb.

However, Tormé is a singer and not a professional writer, and this comes across in a number of ways. There is a certain amount of magazine-style breathless writing and jokiness that is slightly annoying. (I was surprised to be reminded that Tormé has actually written a number of books. His editors should have beaten this tendency out of him.) Furthermore, Tormé does not research some important events in Rich’s life. Rich’s first wife comes and goes literally in the span of a paragraph. Rich’s strange entrance and departure from the armed forces in World War II are not really explained. And there are important musical events that Tormé does not discuss, such as Rich’s performances with Charlie Parker, which may be his most historically important recordings (though they are Parker’s dates and not Rich’s). Presumably there is an official music historian or professional writer out there writing a more complete biography.

That said, this book offers a personal perspective that cannot be matched by that biography (if it exists) and is well worth reading for jazz fans and in fact anyone interested in an amazing life story. If we get a bit tired of Rich’s temper and self-centeredness by the end, this is probably an accurate reflection of his life and personality.

[Mike Tomano · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mel's loving look back at his friendship with Buddy Rich, "The World's Greatest Drummer", a complex man whose acerbic wit and giant confidence could both inspire and injure those around him. From his vaudevillian beginnings until his passing, Buddy's life, seen through the eyes of a dear friend, is a journey through the glitz of the big band era of the 30s, 40s and 50s, and the changes facing those in it from the 60s onward. Buddy kept his band going and his commitment to jazz never waned. He continued to play at peak-form until the end. Recommended.

[Derek Matthews · Rating 2 out of 5]

An interesting book from the perspective of the drumming history and the various bands involved in it, but the life story of Buddy Rich was a bit strange and not very interesting. It mostly kept going over how he was in one band, then another band, then another band, then he played at some venue, then another, on and on forever. To someone familiar with the various locations and more of the big band era, I believe this would be a much more enjoyable read.

[Dean Severson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of great insight into Buddy's life as well as some history of the big band people.

[Terry Peoples · Rating 5 out of 5]

Buddy Rich, my hero and biggest influence. Loved this! 👍

[Andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A moving biography about one of the most influential and well-known drummers in music history. Torme, a fine drummer in his own right, takes us through the life and musical career of Buddy Rich, oft called the "World's Greatest Drummer."

I read this book many years ago for a school project. Though Buddy Rich has never been one of my main inspirations or even favorite players, anybody who's into music should check this book out. There are many interesting stories from past days. These are certainly worth the "price of admission."

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Peppy biography of the great drummer Buddy Rich, one of music's most colorful characters, as told by his long time friend, jazz singer Mel Torme. Torme's writing style is casual, classy and funny, just like his music. I picked this up because I wanted to know more about Buddy's legendary temper tantrums. I got that and much more. Buddy was a complex person that not even his best friends and family fully understood. This book may be the closest anyone ever gets to an answer.

[David Schneider]

Good buok but tainted by Mel's HUGE EGO.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best biographies I've ever read, because author Mel Torme knew Buddy Rich's family as a personal friend, as well as being a musician who knew him professionally.