Eight times a week from 1978 to 1981, an extraordinary feat of drumming took place at a Broadway theater. A Broadway show drummer sat behind an elevated drumset up on stage and re-created the artistry, excitement, and magic of Gene Krupa’s solo on “Sing, Sing, Sing.” Simply playing a fiery, swinging 15-minute solo every night would have been challenge enough for anyone. But there was a great deal more going on. First, to satisfy the director, the drummer had to memorize all 700 bars of the music. And every night, he had to crack accents in precisely the same places throughout the solo in order that the dancers—who included superstars like Ann Reinking—could perform their choreographed moves exactly the same way in every show. But this particular drummer did not even find these tasks sufficiently challenging. So he went to the ultimate level: He became Gene Krupa. He took from […]

December 1984 Issue