Oh how some greats are forgotten so easily by the fickle public, and most writers.

Everyone remembered that Benny Goodman would have turned 100 last year.
Now people are celebrating what would have been Elvis’ 75th birthday, but what about the great drummer who turned his instrument from just an accompanying one into a solo one? As a soloist he was up there, and as popular, with the finest instrumental sidemen in the world.

Of course I’m talking about Gene Krupa who was born on January 15, 1909 in Chicago.

American writer Scott Yanow wrote “Krupa was the first drummer to be a superstar.” He continued by saying “Prior to Krupa drum solos were a real rarity and the drums were thought of as a merely supportive instrument. Krupa, with his good looks and colourful playing became a matinee idol, changed the image of drummers forever.”

I’m not going to give a long history of Gene Krupa, but rather my own recollections of him which started when I became interested in jazz around 1944.

During WWII it was impossible to buy records in South Africa because the ships either brought troops or essential goods. Just after the war 78s trickled into Cape Town and the music shops who sold records would decide, according to what stock they received, how many a customer could purchase.

I played hooky from school and queued (stood in the line) for hours. The shop allowed only three people into the premises at a time, and customers were limited to the purchase of only one record each.

I stood there with my mouth agape. Remember this was the first new jazz record I was buying. My mind boggled. Should I take the Duke Ellington, Jimmy Lunceford or Tommy Dorsey? The decision was confusing and frustrating. In the end I settled on “Who” by the Benny Goodman Trio. The reason was simple, three giants I had read about Goodman, Teddy Wilson and Gene Krupa.

The only time I ever saw him live was at the 1973 Newport-New York Jazz Festival. I had bought my tickets through the George Wein office in New York. I wrote them from South Africa highlighting what concerts I wanted to see and paid up-front. When I got to New York, somehow they had mislaid or forgotten my tickets for the festival’s opening concert at Carnegie Hall.

The Ruby Braff-George Barnes Quartet, who were sensational, played the first half , and the headliner was Benny Goodman with Lionel Hampton, Teddy Wilson and Gene Krupa and although he also played, bassist Slam Stewart wasn’t included on the programme.

My seat was slightly to the left of Krupa, so close I could have touched him. At the end Hamp come over to Krupa (still seated at the drums) and gave him a pat on the back. Krupa fell forward over the snare drum and had to be helped up. He was weak from Leukaemia and had bravely played his heart out at the concert. He died a few month later in October.

If you ask me how the group played I’m not sure I could give you a correct answer. I was so over awed. Remember it was my first Jazz Festival ever. My first time in Carnegie Hall and I’m sitting on the stage starring at the musicians backs. I was so taken with the moment which seemed to pass so quickly that at times I couldn’t believe where I was. I know I felt that Goodman was not at his best. He seemed to be just going through the motions, but the rhythm section did well stoked by the master drummer himself.

I obviously never saw Gene Krupa with Goodman at Carnegie Hall on June 16,1938 when he played his historic “Sing, Sing, Sing” drum solo. I did however witness his farewell appearance on that same stage. And I sat close to him.

Who can forget his recordings of “Drum Boogie”; “Leave Us Leap”; “Disc Jockey Jump” or his trio recordings with Charlie Ventura like “Dark Eyes” and “Stompin’ At The Savoy”? What about the Anita O’ Day features with his band, “Opus One” and “Boogie Blues” or O’ Day and Roy Eldridge on “Let Me Off Uptown” and obviously Eldridge’s feature “After You‘ve Gone“?

As a kid I recall seeing him in the movie Ball of Fire when he took a solo by playing with match sticks on a match box and ending the solo by striking the matches, setting them alight.

Yes I think Krupa was a ball of fire. He never seemed to play with anything less than all out enthusiasm.

To end I’m going to take a few quotes from the book Drummin‘ Men by Burt Korall (Schirmer Books):

“Gene Krupa was so full of life. And he sure loved to swing” Roy Eldridge.

‘People had never before seen and heard a drummer play the way Gene did. He was the miracle drummer boy when I joined Benny Goodman. A professional who always did his job, Gene Krupa made people believe in what he did.” Lionel Hampton.

“He had a sense of the dramatic that was absolutely unprecedented in jazz.” John Hammond

“He had a unique feel, a groove, a hell of a groove when he played.” Steve Gadd.

“Things wouldn’t be the way they are if he hadn’t been around.” Buddy Rich.