Gene Krupa

Gene Krupa was born in Chicago, Illinois on January 15, 1909 and was the the youngest of Bartley and Ann Krupa's nine children.

He was an influential American jazz and big band drummer and composer, known for his highly energetic and flamboyant style.

Gene Krupa will forever be known as the man who made drums a solo instrument. He 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."

Krupa 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.

Krupa made his first recordings in 1927, with a band under the leadership of banjoist Eddie Condon and Red McKenzie.The numbers recorded at that session were: "China Boy", "Sugar", "Nobody's Sweetheart" and "Liza". The McKenzie - Condon sides are also notable for being some of the early examples of the use of a full drum kit on recordings.

In 1929 he moved to New York City and worked with the band of Red Nichols.

In 1933 he joined Benny Goodman's band, where his featured drum work made him a national celebrity. His tom-tom interludes on their hit "Sing, Sing, Sing" were the first extended drum solos to be recorded commercially.

In 1938, Krupa performed with the Goodman Orchestra in the famous Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert.

After a public fight with Goodman at the Earl Theater in Philadelphia, Krupa left Goodman to launch his own band and had several hits with singer Anita O'Day and trumpeter Roy Eldridge.

His athletic drumming style, timing methods and cymbal technique evolved during this decade to fit in with changed fashions and tastes, but he never quite adjusted to the Be-Bop period.

In 1954, Krupa returned to Hollywood, performing, along with Louis Armstrong, "Basin Street Blues" in Jimmy Stewart's bio-pic The Glenn Miller Story. He also joined fellow Benny Goodman alumni Harry James, Teddy Wilson, and Lionel Hampton in The Benny Goodman Story, starring Steve Allen.

In 1959, the movie biography The Gene Krupa Story was released, with Sal Mineo portraying Krupa and a cameo appearance by Red Nichols.

Krupa continued to perform even in famous clubs in the 1960s like the Metropole, near Times Square in New York City, often playing duets with African American drummer Cozy Cole.

Increasingly troubled by back pain, he retired in the late 1960s and opened a music school. He occasionally played in public in the early 1970s until shortly before his death, October 16, 1973. He died of leukemia and heart failure in Yonkers, New York at the age of sixty-four.

Many consider Krupa to be one of the most influential drummers of the 20th century, particularly regarding the development of the drum kit. His drum method was published in 1938 and immediately became the standard text. He is also credited with inventing the rim shot on the snare drum.Krupa also developed and popularised many of the cymbal techniques that became standards.

The 1937 recording of Louis Prima's "Sing, Sing, Sing (With a Swing)" by Benny Goodman and His Orchestra featuring Gene Krupa on drums was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

In 1978, Gene Krupa became the first drummer inducted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame.

Rhythm, the UK's best selling drum magazine voted Gene Krupa the third most influential drummer ever, in a poll conducted for its February 2009 issue. Voters included over 50 top-name drummers.