Herbie Rich
musical artist

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.
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.
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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.
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.
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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.