Born: January 15, 1909, Chicago, Illinois, USA
Died: October 16, 1973, Yonkers, New York, USA
Opinions. Gene Krupa will forever be known as the man who made drums a solo instrument. He single-handedly made the Slingerland Drum Company a success and inspired millions to become drummers. He also demonstrated a level of showmanship which has not been equaled. Buddy Rich once said that Gene was the "beginning and the end of all jazz drummers." Louie Bellson said of Gene, "He was a wonderful, kind man and a great player. He brought drums to the foreground. He is still a household name."
Early days. Gene Krupa was the youngest of Bartley and Ann Krupa's nine children. His parents were very religious and had groomed Gene for the priesthood. He spent his grammar school days at various parochial schools and upon graduation went to St. Joseph's College for a brief year. His father died when Gene was very young and his mother worked as a milliner to support the family. All of the children had to start working while young, Gene at age 11. His brother Pete worked at "Brown Music Company", and got Gene a job as choir boy. Gene started out playing saxophone in grade school but took up drums at age 11 since they were the cheapest item in the music store where he and his brother worked. "I used to look in their wholesale catalog for a musical instrument - piano, trombone, cornet - I didn't care what it was as long as it was an instrument. The cheapest item was the drums, 16 beans, I think, for a set of Japanese drums; a great high, wide bass drum, with a brass cymbal on it, a wood block and a snare drum." Gene's drive to drum was too strong and he gave up the idea of becoming a priest. In 1921, while still in grammar school, Gene joined his first band The Frivolians. He obtained the drumming seat as a fluke when the regular drummer was sick. The band played during summers in Madison, Wisconsin. Upon entering high school in 1923, Gene became buddies with the "Austin High Gang", which included many musicians which would be on Gene's first recording session: McPartland, Lannigan, Freeman and Teschemacher. In 1925, Gene began his percussion studies with Knapp, Silverman & Straight. Under advice from others, he decided to join the musicians union.
Musical career. Krupa started his first "legit" playing with Kayser, Terry and the Benson Orchestra among other commercial bands. A popular hangout for musicians was "The Three Deuces." All of the guys playing in mickey mouse bands would gravitate here after hours and jam till early in the morning. Krupa was able to hone and develop his style playing with other jazz players such as Mezzrow, Dorsey, Beiderbecke and Benny Goodman in these local dives. Krupa's big influences during this time were Hall and Singleton. The drummer who probably had the greatest influence on Krupa in this period was the great Baby Dodds. He began playing professionally in the mid 1920s with bands in Wisconsin. He broke into the Chicago scene in 1927, when he was picked by MCA to become a member of Thelma Terry and Her Playboys, the first notable American jazz band (outside of all-girl bands) to be led by a female musician. The Playboys were the house band at The Golden Pumpkin nightclub in Chicago and also toured extensively throughout the eastern and central United States. Krupa made his first recordings in 1927, with a band under the leadership of banjoist Condon and "fixer" (and sometime singer, who did not appear on the records), McKenzie: these sides are now recognized as the first, and definitive examples of white "Chicago Style" jazz. The numbers recorded at that session were: 'China Boy', 'Sugar', 'Nobody's Sweetheart' and 'Liza'. The McKenzie - Condon sides are also notable for being the first records to feature a full drum kit. Krupa also appeared on six recordings made by the Thelma Terry band in 1928. In 1929 he moved to New York City and worked with the band of Red Nichols. In 1934 he joined Benny Goodman's band, where his featured drum work — especially on the hit 'Sing, Sing, Sing' — made him a national celebrity. In 1938, after a public fight with Goodman at the Earl Theater in Philadelphia, he left Goodman to launch his own band and had several hits with singer O'Day and trumpeter Eldridge. Krupa made a memorable cameo appearance in the 1941 film Ball of Fire, in which he and his band performed an extended version of the hit 'Drum Boogie'. In the summer of 1943, Krupa was arrested in San Francisco in a bogus drug bust. He was charged with possession of marijuana and contributing to the deliquency of a minor and sentenced to 90 days, of which 84 were served. He was later cleared of the latter charges. After his release, Krupa reorganized his band with a big string section, featuring Charlie Ventura on sax. It was one of the largest dance bands of the era, sometimes containing up to forty musicians. He gradually cut down the size of the band in the late 1940s, and from 1951 on led a trio or quartet, often featuring the multi-instrumentalist Agins on tenor saxophone, clarinet and harmonica. He appeared regularly with the Jazz At the Philharmonic shows. Krupa also appeared in several motion pictures including Some Like it Hot and Beat the Band, becoming a sort of matinee idol. His noted likeness to Tyrone Power and musical fame was a magical combination in the eyes of Hollywood. Krupa went into retirement in the late 1960s, although he occasionally played in public until shortly before his death of heart attack. He had also been plagued by leukemia and emphysema. He was buried in Holy Cross Cemetery in Calumet City, Illinois.
Legacy. Krupa has often been considered to be the first drum "soloist." Many consider Krupa to be the most influential drummer of the 20th century, particularly with regard to the development of the drum kit. Krupa's main influence began in the 1930s with his collaboration with the Slingerland drum company, but he had already made history in 1927 as the first kit drummer ever to record using a bass drum pedal. His The Gene Krupa Drum Method was published in 1938 and immediately became the standard text. In 1941 he began an annual Drum Contest(1941). Krupa established the 8 x 12" and 9 x 13" hanging toms mounted on the bass drum, and he developed and popularized many of the cymbal techniques that became standards. His collaboration with Zildjian of the Avedis Zildjian Company developed the hi-hat stand and standardized the names and uses of the ride cymbal, the crash cymbal, the splash cymbal, the pang cymbal and the swish cymbal. Later innovations included the floor tom and toms with tunable bottom heads. At first he placed this between his two bass drums, another technique he was pioneering at the time, before moving it to its now standard position. Krupa has been cited as an influence by 1960s rock drummers such as Moon of The Who, Bonham of Led Zeppelin, Criss of KISS (to whom Krupa gave personal lessons), Peart of Rush, and Whaley of Blue Cheer. The British techno-rock group Apollo 440 had a hit with "Krupa" which featured the sampled phrase from the movie Taxi Driver; "Now back to Gene Krupa's syncopated style." The song itself is an electronic dance track written in the style of Gene Krupa, giving the impression of Krupa's style in the form of a 1990's dance track, blending his musical idioms with a modern song using samples and synthesized bass lines. Krupa's popularity was acknowledged in the 1946 Warner Bros. cartoon, Book Revue, in which a rot scoped Krupa's dynamic drumming plays a prominent role in an impromptu jam session. Sal Mineo starred as Krupa in the Columbia Pictures movie The Gene Krupa Story (1959).
Source:
This article uses, among others, material from the Wikipedia article "Gene Krupa" licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. :
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supplemented with information from other sources:
Gene Krupa's biography
Jazz
The film 'The Gene Krupa Story' on the Internet Movie Database
Watch and listen to Krupa performing (a clips)
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