Richard Alves

Drums (1969)

Memories of Richard

By Jim Bruno

Richard joined the Nitecaps fairly late; Johnny Diaz was drafted into the army and had to go to Vietnam, and Richard took over for him. Richard was, and still is to this day, a great drummer.

We were very lucky to have met such wonderful replacements for our original guys. We did try a few others. We had one guy who’s name was Gary Bradley, who was playing with the Midnight Haze and joined the Nitecaps when the Midnight Haze broke up. Gary was great too, but wasn’t quite a fit. Richard’s strong groove and snapping snare drum stood out immediately, so ultimately, the job was his. Even now when I’m recording, I’m always looking for a tight snapping snare drum with a good strong pop to it.

That was Richard to a ‘T’ – a strong, popping tight snare drum with a great groove. I heard Richard play in a local band not all that long ago and he sounded just as tight and strong is back in the day.

Another cool thing about getting Richard in the band was that his dad was somehow tied into the musicians union. It was Richard’s father who was responsible for getting us to get our union cards, and that would prove to be very beneficial for us both then and in the future.

After the Nitecaps he went on to join Loose Ends with myself and some of the other guys. I had many a great musical adventures with Richard in Loose and Rich was great in the Nitecaps. He was a truly solid groove drummer and I know he prided himself on being one.