Drum God: Gene Krupa

Born: January 15, 1909
Died: October 16, 1973

Eugene Bertram Krupa was born and raised on Chicago's South Side, during a time when Chicago was the place for jazz. Krupa's fire for playing the drums began burning early on while a young Gene ran errands for a local music store and became immersed in music. He landed his first playing job at the age of thirteen, and he never looked back.

In 1935, after working with a variety of groups in Chicago and New York, Krupa became a member of what would soon become the hottest band in the nation–The Benny Goodman Orchestra. His recording of "Sing, Sing, Sing" with the Goodman band still stands as one of the great drum features of all time.

Gene left Goodman in 1938 to lead his own big bands and small groups. In 1951 he became a star member of Norman Granz's famed Jazz At The Philharmonic touring shows, which featured some of the best musicians of the period. In 1954, he partnered with Cozy Cole to open a drum school in New York City. In two years, the school averaged 135 to 150 students per week, helping to spread Krupa's influence in the drumming community to the grassroots level.

After having a heart attack in 1960, Gene focused on leading trios and quartets. He retired in 1967 but returned to the stage three years later. One of his last and most memorable performances was a reunion concert with Benny Goodman, Teddy Wilson, and Lionel Hampton at Carnegie Hall in 1973, which took place shortly before Gene's death from leukemia on October 16 of that year. Gene Krupa was unquestionably the first drummer in history to attain a position of global renown. As such, he is still revered and respected by drummers the world over.

Style And Technique
Krupa was a percussive pioneer. He meshed the styles and techniques of his peers and predecessors into a dynamic time feel fueled by a driving ride cymbal, a four-on-the-floor bass drum, and rudimental snare patterns that accented the music. Gene elevated drum solos to a higher plane when he recorded the legendary 'Sing, Sing, Sing,' a performance that legitimized the drummer as a musical soloist. Krupa was known for having big-band drive and energy, while his work with Benny Goodman showed the drumset to be a musical equal to the melodic instruments in a small-group situation.

Gene paved the way for those who would follow him. He was the first drummer to record using a bass drum. He was the first to popularize the extended drum solo. He was the first jazz musician to become a movie star. And he was responsible for bringing the drums out of the background and into the limelight, both on stage and on record. As Gene once said, "I'm happy that I succeeded in doing two things: I made the drummer a high-priced guy, and I was able to draw more people to jazz."

Gene Krupa's contributions to the world of drumming are matched only by the innovations he made to the instrument itself. Krupa is well known for streamlining the components of the modern drumset; he removed the bells, blocks, gongs, and sound effects and focused on the snare, bass, toms, and cymbals. Gene prompted Slingerland to develop tom-toms with tunable top and bottom heads, which then became standard parts of the drumset. His collaboration with Armand Zildjian led to the development of the modern hi-hat stand, as well as to standardized names and applications for the ride, crash, splash, pang, and swish cymbals.

Influences
Sanford Moeller, Baby Dodds, Chick Webb, Dave Tough, Sonny Greer

Select Discography/Videography
Big-band recordings
Uptown
The Drummer's Band
The Gene Krupa Story
The Essential Gene Krupa

Small-group recordings
The Best Of Gene Krupa (Verve's Choice)
Krupa And Rich
Burnin’ Beat
Jazz At The New School

Benny Goodman
The 1938 Carnegie Hall Concert (several
CD reissues available)
The Complete RCA Victor Small Group Recordings

On DVD
Gene Krupa: Swing, Swing, Swing!
Gene Krupa, Jazz Legend
Classic Jazz Drummers: Swing And Beyond
Classic Drum Solos And Drum Battles (Vols. 1 and 2)

MD Issues
October-November 1979

Drum Gods Archive: (alphabetically, by last name)

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