walking upstream…
Gene Krupa
sourcesWikipedia · JazzProfiles — Gene Krupa
Born in Chicago to Polish immigrant parents, Gene Krupa took up drums as a teenager, absorbing the New Orleans-rooted showmanship of the Black drummers he heard around Chicago before joining Benny Goodman's orchestra in 1935. His extended tom-tom solo on 'Sing, Sing, Sing' turned the drummer from an unseen timekeeper into a featured, matinee-idol soloist, and Krupa spent the rest of his career leading his own big bands and popularizing the drum kit as a solo instrument in American popular music.
the sound in question
1937
Sing, Sing, SingGene Krupa
walk the tributaries ↓
Chick Webb1930s · Swing / Big band / Jazz
Krupa said flatly that seeing Chick Webb play at Harlem's Savoy Ballroom taught him more than any other drummer — "I learned practically everything from him" — and that it was Webb, more than the New Orleans players he'd admired earlier, who convinced him a drummer could be the commanding, virtuosic voice of a band.
listen: upstream & here
1938
A-Tisket, A-TasketChick Webb
1941
Drum BoogieGene Krupa
listen forWebb's tight, propulsive control behind his own orchestra on 'A-Tisket, A-Tasket' is the same drummer-as-engine-room command Krupa scales up into a full boogie-woogie showcase on 'Drum Boogie.'
Baby Dodds1920s · Dixieland / New Orleans jazz / Jazz
Krupa named Baby Dodds among his earliest drumming heroes, saying "Baby taught me more than all the others — not only drum playing, but drum philosophy"; Dodds' New Orleans press-roll technique and habit of soloing inside a band arrangement, rather than staying purely in the background, gave Krupa his basic vocabulary before he ever picked up sticks in a swing band.
listen: upstream & heresource: JazzProfiles — Baby Dodds and Zutty Singleton ↗
1923
Dippermouth BluesBaby Dodds
1937
Sing, Sing, SingGene Krupa
listen forThe rolling, syncopated fills Dodds threads through King Oliver's 'Dippermouth Blues' are the direct ancestor of the extended tom-tom vamp Krupa built into the centerpiece of 'Sing, Sing, Sing.'
Zutty Singleton1920s · Dixieland / New Orleans jazz / Jazz
Krupa also counted Zutty Singleton among the New Orleans drummers he "admired" before Chick Webb reset his whole idea of the instrument; Singleton's relaxed, propulsive timekeeping behind Louis Armstrong helped establish the drummer as a band's rhythmic anchor rather than just a metronome.
listen: upstream & heresource: JazzProfiles — Baby Dodds and Zutty Singleton ↗
1928
St. James InfirmaryZutty Singleton
1941
Let Me Off UptownGene Krupa
listen forSingleton's easy, forward-leaning swing behind Armstrong's horn on 'St. James Infirmary' is the same unhurried pocket Krupa locks into behind Roy Eldridge's trumpet on 'Let Me Off Uptown,' just blown up to big-band scale.