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Herbie Rich

musical artist

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 10, 2026
Entity authorityQ48782018
Source-derived summary

Herbie Rich (February 23, 1944 – May 12, 2004) was an American multi-instrumentalist from Omaha, Nebraska, who was a member of The New Breed, The Electric Flag, and the Buddy Miles Express. He also played with Jimi Hendrix, Mike Bloomfield and others.

Background

Organist Herbie Rich is the brother of bass guitarist Billy Rich. He was formerly with The Electric Flag and later The Buddy Miles Express, of which his brother Billy was also a member.

Career

In the 1950s, Rich was a member of The 7-Wonders, a group that included his family members. Around 1964, he formed the Omaha group, The New Breed. Members included Stemsy Hunter, Hoshal Wright, Jerry Bennett, Hank Redd and Curly Martin and Jerry Bennett.

The Electric Flag

Mike Bloomfield once said of Herbie Rich that he plays keyboard like Jimi Hendrix plays guitar. Another member of The Flag, Peter Strazza referred to Rich as a monster, an unbelievable musician who could play any instrument.

Having been a member of The Electric Flag since joining in 1967, Rich had been with the band from its early days.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Herbie Rich” as musical artist. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Herbie, Rich and musical.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1944, 2004, 1964, 1967—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1944-02-23. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Herbie, Rich and musical providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Herbie Rich”, the useful work is to connect “musical artist” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q48782018. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1944, 2004, 1964 and 1967.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Herbie Rich”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Herbie Rich primary sources, Herbie Rich archive and Herbie research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Herbie Rich”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Herbie Rich” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.