When asked if Rich could read music, Bobby Shew, lead trumpeter in Rich's mid-1960s big band replied, "No. He'd always have a drummer there during rehearsals to read and play the parts initially on new arrangements. Buddy would just sit in the empty audience seats in the afternoon and listen to the band... He'd only have to listen to a chart once and he'd have it memorized. We'd run through it and he'd know exactly how it went, how many measures it ran and what he'd have to do to drive it."