Gene Krupa summary

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Gene Krupa, (born Jan. 15, 1909, Chicago, Ill., U.S.—died Oct. 16, 1973, Yonkers, N.Y.), U.S. bandleader and the first great drum soloist in jazz. Krupa had worked with Eddie Condon (1905–73) in Chicago before moving to New York City in 1929 and joining Benny Goodman’s big band in 1935. He quickly became the best-known drummer of his day, famous for the showmanship and technique displayed in extended drum solos such as that in “Sing, Sing, Sing.” He formed his own successful band in 1938, featuring trumpeter Roy Eldridge and singer Anita O’Day (1919–2006). Krupa’s energetic playing became the model for many drummers of the swing era.

Duke Ellington's original 14-member band

swing Summary

Swing, in music, both the rhythmic impetus of jazz music and a specific jazz idiom prominent between about 1935 and the mid-1940s—years sometimes called the swing era. Swing music has a compelling momentum that results from musicians’ attacks and accenting in relation to fixed beats. Swing rhythms

band Summary

Band, (from Middle French bande, “troop”), in music, an ensemble of musicians playing chiefly woodwind, brass, and percussion instruments, in contradistinction to an orchestra, which contains stringed instruments. Apart from this specific designation, the word band has wide vernacular application,

See a man playing a Korean puk a double-headed barrel drum

drum Summary

Drum, musical instrument, the sound of which is produced by the vibration of a stretched membrane (it is thus classified as a membranophone within the larger category of percussion instruments). Basically, a drum is either a tube or a bowl of wood, metal, or pottery (the “shell”) covered at one or

music Summary

Music, art concerned with combining vocal or instrumental sounds for beauty of form or emotional expression, usually according to cultural standards of rhythm, melody, and, in most Western music, harmony. Both the simple folk song and the complex electronic composition belong to the same activity,