New Gene Krupa Book

[mtarrani]

did Gene play matched grip a lot, the photo shows here?

He did. About have the clips in which I have watched him he is playing match grip. His drum school partner, Cozy Cole, played sticks and brushes in every clip in which I have watched him. I think he (Cole) was a true match grip player long before Ringo made it popular.

 

[hawker]

And of course...there was the Gene Krupa Story released in 1959 starring Sal Mineo. I was ten years old and my mother took me to see it at the movie theater in Rochester, NY. I had to shovel the driveway all day so that she could get the car out to take me in a Blizzard. The movie is 50s corny and the details very "Hollywoodized" to make a better story. But there is some very good music and some great players in it...including Shelly Manne as Davey Tough and Anita O'Day.

 

[Tama CW]

from the comments section of the above video

Gene Krupa was indeed a pioneer! He did so much---the crash cymbal, the ride cymbal, the hi-hat--china type cymbals--he coiled all those names! Actually, in those days the ride was called the "top" cymbal, but soon was called ride, as Krupa changed the name to be more appropriate to it's function. The hi hat was often still called the "sock" cymbal, but the first short hi hat, Kruoa called it a "low hat" , and then he modified a lowhat stand with a monger tube and pull rod, to the "be bop" or, as he called it, hi-hat stand and cymbals. That way you could play those 2 cymbals with the sticks instead of just the foot. That single set of cymbals was the single greatest improvement and development in drumset evolution over any other. Gene wanted bigger, louder, brighter sounding cymbals, and Zildjian had a heck of a time making big ones! He actually played rides as big as 26 or even 28"! This was in an era of having issues getting enough metal through the leather belt-driven rolling mills just to make a lowly 16"! In fact, a 16" was a large cymbal, most were between 6" and 14". Somehow, Zildjian managed to make these huge cymbals, and the first "big" sounds were the result. As you can hear in this clip, the old hand hammered K cymbals were VERY garbage -can sounding, especially the hi-hats on this kit! That crash to his left on the kit sounded really 'dirty' and nasty when he crashed it at the end of the song. But he'd make them sound decent--he had the technique! Bear in mind, crashing cymbals to accent the phrases like he did in this clip was NOT the normal way to play in those days! This was radical playing and radical thinking back then! If you listen to this, you are already hearing elements of rock music--and I mean the stuff from the 1970's era! What he is doing here became the standard for playing to this day. We owe what we do to him, and Buddy Rich. John Bonham actually idolized Krupa, and you can hear those elements (yes big band jazz!) in many Led Zeppelin tunes--even triplets on the ride cymbal! Just think--it Krupa had access to the Paiste 2002 cymbals Bonham plays, and the set up Bonham had, how incredible that would sound! This guy blazed new trails for both drumming in modern music, and the musical instrument design and manufacture! He was just the pioneer of modern drumming and drumkits!

I don't believe everything i read on the internet....and particularly YouTube. Gene pioneering/playing 26 and 28" ride cymbals? I defer to Brooks' book on that but I would doubt it. Davy Tough, Stan Kenton, and others certainly explored that realm. Those big cymbals didn't come about until the later 1940's....certainly not in the 1930's when Gene was first working closely with Avedis Zildjian on pushing for "bigger" and lighter cymbals.....which in that era was pretty much no larger than 15" to 16"....and an occasional and quite scarce 18/20". I haven't run into "RIDE" cymbal being used as a model until the 1950's....and in particular during the Large Stamp era. In the 1930's the equivalent to their "ride" was the "BOUNCE" cymbal. And you will see 15" medium thins of that era stamped at "BOUNCE." I've yet to see 16" or large as a "BOUNCE." But there are probably some out there. And the "CRASH" cymbal model name doesn't appear to begin until around the early 1950's (trans stamp). And "HI HAT" stamps on the hi hat cymbals don't seem to appear until the mid-1940's. I'm sure Zenstat will correct me if I have miss-stepped here.

Gene was using "garbage sounding" old K's in that 1945 "Leave Us Leap" drum video? I don't know about that. They sound like thin/paper thin A's to me.....including the sloshy, dry, dark, and semi-trashy hi hats. Very nice sounding imo. Nothing larger than 18/20 on that kit. Did he use old K's? Again, Brooks would note it in his book if it Gene used K's. It would seem odd indeed after his close working relationship with Avedis to make thin A's at Zildjian, USA and then go out and buy/use later KCons or Instanbul K's (Type 1's and 2's) from the 30's/40's. Gene's kits through the 30's and 40's don't ever appear to use anything larger than a 16/18" Zildjian...maybe a 20" later in that run. One reference I found had him using a 24" ride in the 1950's. But his big band career prior to be-bop doesn't seem to feature large ride cymbals.

 

[JOE COOL]

1948

 

[richardh253]

Brooks was at DE drum Show Feb 2022 with "a carton of books" and fortunately I got one. I cannot imagine reading this as an e-book, though. "Labour of Love" is barely an overture to the obsessive detail BT brings to GK. And I say that in an appreciative way! Terrific research and respect combined. And yes, we'd all benefit from similarly obsessed treatments of the kits of, among others, Buddy, Ringo and Charlie!

 

[hawker]

1948

Even though I've been a fan of Gene's for over fifty years....I have never seen that video. LOLOL! Interestingly....I can sort of relate. Not an "angry" response but an emotional one...he must have felt he "nailed it"!!!!!