Am I seeing that right? Is Max really on that record?
I would probably not be interested in that record, to be honest. My interest in the Buddy Rich Big Band is, nowadays, the leader himself, and not really his playing per se, just the human intensity that he was able to summon so fully for so long. There's a tenacity there that fascinates me, because as arrogant as he no doubt was, there's a deeper humility there...the way he talked about Big Sid & Jo Jones...he might not have been humble in the generally-accepted way, but he was honest about himself, what he was doing, and the very real awareness that the bar had been set so high in so many ways by people who came before him. I'd like to think that that was why he was such a maniac and perfectionist, simply because he knew that when it comes time to play, fucking around and not being 100% committed is a spiritual crime.