Buddy Rich: 'Channel One Suite,' 1968

This masterpiece began with a large TV prop at the Dunes in Vegas set to 'Channel 1'

On Saturdays in 1971, I began traveling by myself on a commuter rail line to buy jazz records in Manhattan. It was an hour-long ride, and I was 14. When the train slid to a halt at Grand Central Terminal, I typically spent the first hour in the AR Demonstration Room (above, in 1970).

This space was a glass-walled room perched above the terminal’s main concourse. It was set up in 1959 by Acoustic Research, a Cambridge, Mass.-based company that manufactured high-end audio equipment.

Inside the room, you could hear the high-fidelity playback of AR’s top speaker models, including the AR-3a, AR-5 and AR-6 models—driven by glowing AR amplifiers, Dual turntables and Dynaco electronics.

At this point in time, component stereo equipment was just becoming more affordable with increased competition from Japanese and German makers of turntables, amps and speakers. You could buy different brands for your set-up or stick with the same brand for all of your gear.

But I wasn’t in the AR Demo Room for gear. Oh, don’t get me wrong, I lusted after the stuff. All jazz fans did. My problem was that the gear was still out of my reach, financially, despite all of my saved cash from snow-shoveling, mowing lawns, painting houses, cleaning gutters and repaving driveways.

Instead, I was at AR to hear one single track on one specific album through those speakers. The album they had for demos that I loved was the Buddy Rich Big Band’s Mercy, Mercy (1968), a live LP recorded at Caesars Palace. The track I loved to hear was Channel One Suite. I was elevated listening to that amazing piece blaring through those speakers and it primed me for the vinyl hunt that followed before I returned home in the afternoon.

Channel One Suite was composed and arranged for the band by trumpeter Bill Reddie, who wasn’t in the band. Here’s what trumpeter Bobby Shew told me in an interview in 2010. Bobby often sat in with the Rich band during Vegas club performances.

JW: Who was Bill Reddie?

BS: Bill led the house band at the Dunes Hotel in Las Vegas. Back then, all the big hotels had floorshows. Today, a floorshow seems passe compared to all the digital technology and larger-than-life stuff you see. But back then, a floorshow was an extravaganza. That's how the Vegas casino-hotels attracted guests, with homegrown entertainment. You'd have headliners, of course. But you'd also have these elaborate musical revues with dancers and orchestras. Reddie was the guy responsible for coming up with songs and skits and things for the Dunes. West Side Story Medley, with all its moving parts, was a natural for an arranger like Reddie.

JW: Was West Side Story Medley tricky for Rich, who didn’t read music?

BS: We rehearsed it with a different drummer while Buddy sat in the audience seats. It took us a few hours to put it together after rehearsing the different sections. After we had it down, Buddy jumped up and played it through without a single mistake. He had memorized the whole thing. The guy had the most natural instincts.

JW: What about Reddie’s other charts?

BS: After West Side Story Medley became popular, he brought in Channel One Suite and Machine. They were taken out of his Casino De Paris show at the Dunes. I know because I played both of them there when I sat in.

JW: What was the origin of Channel One Suite?

BS: The Dunes show included a paper prop of a humongous TV screen. Showgirls came through the back of it. The channel on the prop was set to Channel 1. Bill just took that piece and brought it into Buddy’s band. It was a great chart.

JW: The same thing with Machine?

BS: Yes. On the Casino De Paris stage, they had a machine set up. You know, The Octopus ride they used to have at amusement parks in the 1960s? It was black, with all these mechanized tentacles and open cars attached. People would sit in the cars and get whizzed around when the tentacles started moving. Except in the revue, showgirls were in the cars. The song Bill wrote for this was called Machine.

JW: Reddie was a good writer?

BS: A hell of a writer.

The track still gives me the chills and often motivates me to drum along with Rich using my thumbs on my desk. Then I catch myself and stop.

To read my JazzWax interview with trumpeter Bobby Shew on Buddy Rich, go here.

Two tracks for you today and lots of videos. Here’s the album version of Channel One Suite with Don Menza playing the iconic tenor saxophone solo…

And here’s the Rich Band in 1969 playing Channel One Suite. Stick with it. It’s an astonishing clip, for Rich’s drumming alone. His solo is sharp, on edge and jaw-dropping. The stunning tenor saxophone solo here on the ballad portion is by Pat LaBarbera, followed later by tenor saxophonist Don Englert…

Bonus: I love this 1969-’70 period for Rich’s road band. Here’s the band in 1970 in Copenhagen, but you have to click “Watch on YouTube” so view…

Here’s the band in Paris in 1970…

Here’s another great Channel One Suite in Berlin with another fabulous solo by Pat (at 07:22 on the time bar), with a tip of the hat Sonny Rollins (click on Watch at YouTube)…

Here’s the band in Norway in 1970…

And here’s Rich’s 1968 band in Copenhagen, with Don Menza on lead tenor saxophone and a great version of West Side Story Medley…