From David Miller's www.bigband-era.com website.
Gene Krupa Swings Again
I've taken several polls among big band fans over the years. Never has the Gene Krupa band ranked in the top ten in popularity. It's a mystery to me, since Krupa had a fantastic orchestra, kept it going well after the era was supposedly over, and made many outstanding recordings.
I'm happy to report that the Krupa band is back, big time. The new leader is Michael Berkowitz. He formed the band in 2004 and was featured in an interview on Program #1116 ("Gene Krupa Legacy"). Now the band has issued its first CD, entitled "Thinking of Gene."
The music on the CD is outstanding. Mr. Krupa would flash his trademark smile if he could only hear what Berkowitz and his sidemen have wrought. He would recognize all the tracks but one, the title track. Thinking of Gene, an instrumental, was composed by Steve Allee.
The CD runs the gamut of Krupa's most noted performances. There's a quartet rendition of the Gene Krupa Trio masterpiece, Stompin' at the Savoy, featuring Mike Tomaro recreating Charlie Ventura's tenor sax solo, Paul Henry on bass, Tony Nalker on piano and Berkowitz on drums. Rockin' Chair, originally a showpiece of Roy Eldridge, is most competently brought back to life by trumpeter Steve Hawk.
I recall asking Michael how he planned to handle the fact that Krupa's band featured a one-of-a-kind jazz singer, Anita O'Day. Well, he admirably met that challenge, by enlisting the talents of another one-of-a-kind vocalist, Annette Sanders. She has a style all her own but still manages to conjure up the marvelous sounds that O'Day provided on tunes such as Massachusetts, Boogie Blues and Gene's Boogie.
I loved the Annette Sanders reading of That's What You Think, one of my favorites. I asked Berkowitz if he had that song in his band book when we talked in 2004. If I recall correctly, he said he was not familiar with it. Obviously he has done his homework since then, and I find it one of the highlights of the CD.
The Gene Krupa band will appear at Dillon's in New York City on Wednesday of this week. Future engagements are listed on his website, www.berkmusic.com.
-October 22, 2007
