Mixed Media : The Wonder--and Woe--of Buddy Rich : “TRAPS THE DRUM WONDER: THE LIFE OF BUDDY RICH” By Mel Torme, <i> Oxford University Press ($21.95)</i>

As a close friend of the subject, a skilled writer and a talented drummer himself, Torme is triply qualified to take on this biography. Remaining true to a promise, made to the drummer shortly before his death in 1987, to produce a well-rounded picture, Torme has done that--warts and all.

A drumming genius, Rich was a musical illiterate who could listen to a complex arrangement a single time and play it as if he were an excellent sight reader. He was also a foul-mouthed, foul-tempered, sometimes violent man whose feuds were legendary. He fought with his wife . . . with Frank Sinatra . . . with Tommy Dorsey . . . with his manager . . . with the Internal Revenue Service . . . and with the men in his band, whom he treated without mercy. His disposition was not helped by an abusive father.

Because Rich’s childhood had been one long triumph--starting in vaudeville at 18 months, he became the world’s highest-paid juvenile star--his later life seemed anticlimactic.

An inveterate pot smoker from age 16 (the book leaves open to speculation whether this contributed to the brain tumors that killed him), Rich often was frustrated by a chaotic adult career: He would lead a big band, lose money, become a singer, then a sideman, then lead a big band again.

Torme points up Rich’s occasional sentimentality, his role as a caring father and whatever other pluses he can dig up. But the end result is a raw, accurate and honest portrait of a gifted, sadly flawed human being.

Rating: * * * *