Many Think The Beat Made The Big Bands Popular...
Interesting premise. Certainly, since the beginning of time (not that kind of "time") people have been beating out rhythms on hollowed logs, pots, rocks and drums. Rhythm is a basic in Man. All Life has rhythm...tempo, beginning, endings. So, did the Big Beat attract people to the Big Bands? Perhaps...
In the case of Gene Krupa, his talents helped bring the drummer to the forefront. His looks and style plus his drumming ability were like magnets to audiences during his career. GO Gene GO was the chant and and Gene went...Sing Sing Sing is still heard everyday in some form or other on the radio, TV Shows, Movies, jingles...it's inescapable. That Primal Tom Tom beat goes right to your core. With the GK Band, (of which I have been the Leader for 6 years) audiences still demand Sing Sing Sing. That driving floor tom introduction makes everyone a Bobby Soxxer or Jitter Bug again.
As a young drummer, my first exposure to Big Bands was through the LP records of my parents. They had all of the Glenn Miller hits, so I learned to play along with those recordings and drummer Morris (Moe) Purtill, Miller's guy. Apart from IN THE MOOD, the Miller Band was not a hard swinging group. Glenn didn't want that...his was a Dance Band and that great Miller Sound of Willie Schwartz on lead clarinet ( who, years later, befriended me when I was a 23 year old playing on Nelson Riddle's band) was something special. Still is. Strange as it might seem, my first exposure to Gene Krupa came from watching the Dennis The Menace Show, with Jay North as Dennis.
Dennis is seen marching down the street in the opening sequence while beating on a Bass Drum. Mr. Wilson, Dennis' cranky next door neighbor, looks out his window to see what all the racket is about. When he sees Dennis, he says, "Well, he's no Gene Krupa." Having never heard that name, I asked my Parents who that was and they told me Gene was a famous drummer. Not a spectacular intro to Mr. Krupa.
Not long after that, Gene and his Quartet came to The Embers, a Night Club located in Indianapolis, my hometown. Having now contracted Krupa Fever, my parents took me to hear Gene in person. There were his White marine Pearl Slingerlands, the highly polished cymbals, the two small spotlights on each side of the set and his initials, GK inside the crest on the head of the Bass Drum. I must admit, I don't remember a thing about the music that night. I was mesmerized by the lights, the showmanship and the Man himself. As Louie Bellson said, "You could have 15 drummers on stage, all playing at once, and your eyes just went to Gene. He had that kind of presence."
After the set, I was ushered back to the small dressing room. Gene was in his tux shirt and no jacket, relaxing. Here I came, the Millionth Kid Drummer wanting to meet his Hero.
I began asking questions and Gene was kind enough to answer every one of them, dumb as they may have been. He had a great love of children, coaching Little League Baseball teams in Yonkers, NY. counseling, mentoring. He was a true Gentleman...and a gentle man.
About a week later, an envelope came to our house addressed to me. Inside was a picture of me and Gene. Me looking stiff and nervous and GK, over my shoulder, looking dapper and cool. Whenever I look at that picture, I remember that night.
Move up to 2005. I had spent a number of years trying to become the licensed Leader of the Krupa Band. There was no Band at that time and it took some hard work on my part to convince the Estate that I should be their guy. My resume was impressive enough that they finally said yes and off we went.
The band came with no music as the Krupa Library had been lost or destroyed in a fire in Gene's Yonkers home not long before his passing. I had been putting together a book of Krupa hits over the years, finding music, getting things copied and taken off of recordings and also getting the scores from Quincy Jones from the LP he had done for Gene in 1956, Drummin' Man.
Armed with charts and a handful of dates, we were on our way. My time as Leader of the Gene Krupa Band has been wonderful. Wherever we have played, audiences have given us standing ovations at each performance. Hundreds, if not thousands of people have told me their personal Gene Krupa Story, either about having met him, known him, seen him or just admired him, and, like Gene in that dressing room in the Embers, I listen intently to everyone of them, trying to carry on his music and honor his legacy.
