Gene Krupa
This shot of the highly energetic drummer Gene Krupa was shot at a memorial to Hot Lips Page in 1950's. A native of Chicago's notorious Southern Side, Krupa first made his reputation with Benny Goodman's band in the 1930's, just in time to be on the launch of the Swing era. Krupa's virtuosity helped propel such modern classics as "Sing Sing Sing," "Stompin' at the Savoy," and "Swingtime in the Rockies" to the top of the charts. Later on with his own band, Krupa successfully made the segue from Swing to Bebop. Considered the best white drummer of his generation, Krupa always paid respect to master drummers Baby Dodds and Chick Webb.
At a time when American music was highly segregated, Gene Krupa made drums and drumming as acceptable to white audiences as they had always been to black audiences. In the process, critic Leonard Feather observes, Gene Krupa became, "the first drummer in history to attain a position of global renown."
Writer Nancy Thompson