# Neil Peart could play almost anything with Rush. Then a jazz band left him struggling

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/neil-peart-could-play-almost-anything-with-rush-then-a-jazz-band-left-him-struggling/
- Published: 2026-10-28T18:15:00+00:00
- Updated: 2026-10-28T19:57:17+00:00
- Original publisher: Far Out
- Original article: https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/neil-peart-could-play-almost-anything-with-rush-then-a-jazz-band-left-him-struggling/
- Topics: Art, Culture, Entertainment, Music

## Key points

- Peart struggled with an unfamiliar Buddy Rich Big Band arrangement.
- He could not hear the horns clearly during the performance.
- Lessons from Peter Erskine broadened his approach to drumming.

## Summary

Neil Peart, Rush’s drummer, found himself struggling when he sat in with the Buddy Rich Big Band in 2008. The experience showed that even a highly accomplished rock drummer could be caught off guard by jazz arrangements and the demands of playing with an unfamiliar ensemble.

Peart had prepared the chart for ‘Mexicali Nose’, but on stage he could not hear the horns clearly and the band played a different arrangement from the one he had learned. He later returned to the Big Band and took lessons from jazz drummer Peter Erskine, concluding that learning more about jazz drumming could deepen his understanding of drumming overall.

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Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.