JAZZ REVIEW : Drummer Pays Homage to Buddy Rich

The Wednesday night session at downtown Los Angeles’ Grand Avenue Bar offered a 15-piece band led by a drummer, Paolo Nonnis, in what was billed as a tribute to Buddy Rich.

Always a superdrummer, Rich was better known for his personal virtuosity and his small group triumphs than for his orchestra. He was a colorful leader with a colorless band. The Nonnis ensemble, which includes five Rich alumni, was no more distinctive. In fact, “The Three Faces of Eve” had nothing on this band, which changed personality with every tune.

As a unit, it is first rate; lead trumpeter Bob Clark carries a brilliant brass section, the charts are read well and there are at least two soloists of value in trombonist Alan Kaplan and tenor saxophonist Hal Melia.

Most of history’s great bands--Ellington, Akiyoshi, Gerald Wilson--have depended on the penmanship of just one or two writers to establish a unified personality. Rich never had this; Nonnis’ references to “classics” from the Rich book were ironic, since aside from the “West Side Story” medley Rich’s band left few if any memorable works.

This leader drives his men well. To assert that Paolo Nonnis is no Buddy Rich would be like claiming that Paul Conrad is no Picasso. The bases touched included Latin (“Samba de Rollins”), blues (a revamped version of Count Basie’s “One O’Clock Jump”) and occasionally a number that cooked without reference to other sources (“Just in Time”). Too often, though, one was tempted to think “Seems to Me I’ve Heard That Riff Before.”

Ghost bands per se are a problem. A band playing homage to a leader who played drums and could neither read nor write music is doubly dubious. It might be as well for this ambitious and talented artist to find a Paolo Nonnis style, rather than use a departed giant as a crutch.