Neil Peart leaves behind a legacy of 19 albums with Rush. His genius on the drum set is present at every bar, every beat, every fill. Both his sense of composition and his technique were flawless. And some say that is his contribution to the drumming world.
Yes! But there is an important side note to that legacy.
In the mid 1990’s, Neil Peart invited most of the best and brightest drummers in the world in a studio in New York. There was waiting a big band. A prestigious big band. The Buddy Rich big band! Now, for the ones who do not know, Buddy Rich was a jazz drummer that died in 1987 and played with all the great jazz artist, from Frank Sinatra to Count Basie. He also had his own big band that toured all over the country and was very popular.
Back to our story.
Neil Peart decided to give the drumming world a present of sorts by making some of the best drummer in the world play with the Buddy Rich big band. Some of these tracks are big band swing music, but not all of them by far. The names of those drummers that Neil Peart manage to get for those sessions boggles the mind. We have Stave Gadd, of course, and Joe Morello, as well as Dave Weckl. Their presence makes sense since these people gravitate towards Jazz. But the list doesn’t stop there and includes giants from the pop world like Neil Peart himself, Omar Hakim (Sting, Madonna, Daft Punk), Manu Katche (Sting), Steve Smith (Journey) and Steve Ferrone (Eric Clapton, Tom Petty). There are many more greats on the album, but I invite you to now go unwrap the present that Neil Peart has left for us all. And if you are streaming the album and do not know where to access the credits, you can go on Google and type in “Burning for Buddy”. The first entry is from Wikipedia and will give you the list of all the legendary drummers that played. Enjoy!
Thank you Neil. We miss you.
