Buddy Rich

• 2 VINYL SET

There are few sounds in jazz as thrilling as a big band in full flight. And a big band led by Buddy Rich promises to send the listener's dials into the red. The live album Just In Time: The Final Recording delivers on the promise. When London club owner Ronnie Scott introduces Rich, he dispenses with any of his oft-repeated, well-loved jokes and nails it simply and definitively: "A big hand please for the world's greatest drummer. Ladies and gentlemen... Buddy Rich."

There are 72 minutes of frequently high-impact, always swinging music. Most of the tracks are short and sweet, clocking in at around four minutes. At ten minutes, the penultimate suite from George Gershwin's "Porgy And Bess" is by far the longest. It is also one of the most familiar, because, intending to release highlights from the engagement as an album, Rich presented a programme which avoided most of the warhorses in the band's book, with Freddie Hubbard's "Up Jumped Spring," for instance, balancing Cole Porter's "Love For Sale."

PERSONNEL:

• Buddy Rich - drums
• Eric Miyashiro - trumpet
• Kevin Richardson - trumpet
• Greg Gisbert - trumpet
• Dana Watson - trumpet
• Rick Trager - trombone
• Tom Garling - trombone
• Jim Martin - trombone, bass trombone
• Bob Bowlby - saxophone
• Mike Rubino - saxophone, flute
• Steve Marcus - saxophone
• Jay Craig - saxophone
• Matt Harris - piano
• Rob Amster - double bass
• Cathy Rich - vocals

Recorded live at Ronnie Scott's 19th and 20th November 1986

TRACKS:

• SIDE A
• A1. Wind Machine
• A2. Night Blood
• A3. Ready Mix
• A4. The Trolley Song

• SIDE B
• B1. Winding Way
• B2. Harco Shuffle
• B3. Just In Time

• SIDE C
• C1. Loose
• C2. Love For Sale
• C3. Shawnee
• C4. Up Jumped Spring
• C5. Why Bother?

• SIDE D
• D1. Porgy And Bess
• D2. Twisted (Feat.Cathy Rich)