Results for "Gene Krupa"

Gene Krupa

Gene Krupa was easily one of the most colorful personalities of the big band era. Despite his outrageous stage persona, Krupa was a serious and disciplined musician whose vision changed the role of drummer forever and who helped standardize the jazz drum kit. Eugene Bertram Krupa was born in Chicago in 1909; he began learning the saxophone at age six but switched to drums five years later because they were the cheapest item in the music store. He played in local dance bands while still in his teens, and in spite of his mother's wishes that he study for the priesthood he decided to become a professional musician. Krupa made his first recording in 1927 as a member of the Chicagoans, with Eddie Condon and Red McKenzie

Jerry Granelli: Updating Music of Past Heroes

By R.J. DELUKE

"I've earned the privilege of not playing anything I don't want to play," says drummer Jerry Granelli, whose past is replete with the names of many greats in jazz for whom he supplied rhythmic support--sometimes force--over several decades. “That used to be a fear," he adds, “You figured if you turned something down, the ...

Kick It: A Social History Of The Drum Kit

By DAVID A. ORTHMANN

Kick It: A Social History Of The Drum Kit Matt Brennan 371 Pages ISBN: #978-0-19-068387-0 Oxford University Press 2020 Matt Brennan's Kick It: A Social History Of The Drum Kit is a complex, meticulously researched piece of work that spans several centuries. In the course of over three ...

Give the Drummer (More Than) Some! Part 2

By LUDOVICO GRANVASSU

Second part of this drummer-special [for the first part click here], focusing on power drummers and showing the continuity that connects Buddy Rich and Gene Krupa to Joey Baron and Jim Black, and a special focus on the live performative energy of Kresten Osgood and Makaya McCraven as well as the spiritual jazz of Tommaso Cappellato's ...

October Birthdays Featuring Art Blakey & Anita O'Day Centennial Salutes

By MARC COHN

Indeed--October jazz birthdays. This week's show honoring the 90th birthday of Dan Morgenstern, as well as honoring the memory of Lorraine Gordon (who would have been 97 on Oct. 15th). Centennial salutes for Art Blakey, Anita O'Day and Babs Gonzales. Significant others include Zoot Sims, Clifford Brown, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Illinois Jacquet, Norman Simmons, Roy ...

Freddie Hubbard and Bennie Moten

By JOE DIMINO

Beginning show number 608 with some Latin flair and doing those honors is veteran trombone cat Wayne Wallace with the tune “All The Things You Are" off his latest 2019 CD Rhythm of Invention. From that rousing point, we go into Freddie Hubbard, then Akiko Hamilton Dechter “Moment's Notice" and the great Ben Webster. We profile ...

Michael Lauren: Give My Regards To Portugal

By JIM WORSLEY

From Broadway to jazz to Portugal. A circuitous route for sure. One that has, however, served international musician Michael Lauren well. The now seventy-year- old multi-styled drummer came out of the womb with a kick pedal and has been holding down a symphony of beats ever since. Over the years he has played or recorded with ...

Invisible Man: Willis Conover and The Jazz Hour

By KARL ACKERMANN

Willis Conover stood with a cordoned off pool of reporters and photographers, being kept at arms-length from celebrities and dignitaries on the White House lawn. There was no table assigned to him at Bill Clinton's 1993 celebration of the fortieth anniversary of the Newport Jazz Festival though Conover had been involved with George Wein's project from ...