I post a weekly diary of historical notes, arts & science items, foreign news (often receiving little notice in the US) and whimsical pieces from the outside world that I often feature in "Cheers & Jeers".
OK, you've been warned - here is this week's tomfoolery material that I posted.
CHEERS to Bill and Michael in PWM, our Wyoming-based friend Irish Patti and ...... well, each of you at Cheers and Jeers. Have a fabulous weekend.
ART NOTES - a career retrospective of John Heliker entitled The Order of Things is at the Asheville, North Carolina Art Museum through May 2nd.
GOOD LUCK to the Democratic Party prime minister of Italy, Matteo Renzi - who is attempting to assist the head of Italy's national TV broadcaster (with factions at loggerheads with each other) to give its news and current affairs operations a structure closer to that of the BBC.
THIS YEAR will see the release of the film The 33 - based on the dramatic rescue of 33 Chilean workers from a collapsed mine (2,300 feet below ground) four years ago. It features Antonio Banderas in the title role of the miners' de-facto leader and spokesman 'Super' Mario Sepúlveda - who when asked if he ever got within range of the two mine owners said, "The truth is, I don’t know how I’m going to react if I get one of those two murderers in front of me .... I don’t know what my reaction would be. And that scares me, you know?"
THURSDAY's CHILD is Amigo the Cat - and the news of this English kitteh's death was greatly exaggerated, as a couple thought they had cremated him (following a car accident) ..... until a phone call came in from an animal shelter.
HAIL and FAREWELL to the Three Dog Night keyboardist Jimmy Greenspoon who has died at the age of 67 ..... to the trumpeter Lew Soloff - who replaced Randy Brecker in Blood, Sweat & Tears after their first album and remained for five years - who has died at the age of 71 ...... to a founding member of the influential jazz-rock band Soft Machine and the driving force behind the prog-rock group Gong, Daevid Allen - who has died at the age of 77 ..... to the NBC stagehand Gene Patton, who stole the spotlight on The Gong Show as Gene Gene the Dancing Machine - who has died at the age of 82 ...... to the founder of the first sex shop catering specifically to women, Dell Williams - who was tired of shops run for men (with a guy reading the racing form behind the desk) - who has died at the age of 92 .... and finally, the cartoonist Irwin Hasen - who for thirty years drew the comic strip Dondi - who has died at the age of 96.
FRIDAY's CHILD is Freya the Hero Cat - who alerted her family to the plight of a neighbor, an eighty-four year old Scottish woman who suffered a severely broken ankle just outside her home (with her deaf husband upstairs, unaware of the drama).
THE OTHER NIGHT yours truly hosted the Top Comments diary with a look at two young prep school student/athletes from Waco, Texas who showed extraordinary empathy that one would not expect from those with their station-in-life ... and the accompanying video may be the best three minutes you'll spend all day.
AT AGE 75 the noted flautist Sir James Galway is concerned (like many others) about the state of music education in his native Northern Ireland, noting plans to build a pricey new arts complex in London and then asking, "If it's so important in London, why is it not as important for us in Belfast? It should be something of first importance, we should be proud in Belfast to try to have both the best orchestra and the best theatre."
BRAIN TEASER - try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC.
FATHER-SON? - the late author Truman Capote and TV star David Hyde Pierce.
...... and finally, for a song of the week .............................. though critics believe that he was not the most advanced or innovative drummer of his era (with many others choosing Warren 'Baby' Dodds) and certainly not the most subtle: it's difficult to argue that Gene Krupa was not the most important drummer from the 1930's. With a flamboyant style, a seat at the table of one of the most important orchestras and matinée idol good looks (with a resemblance to Tyrone Power) .... the general public's view of drummers changed forever, with drum solos now an accepted phase of the big band era.
The youngest of nine children born (to a an immigrant from Poland) in Chicago just over 100 years ago: Gene Krupa lost his dad at a young age, and he had to begin work at a young age (at a music store) to help support the family. Why the drums? Well, it may not be this way today, but the cheapest item in Brown Music's wholesale catalog was a set of Japanese drums (for $16!) in 1920. Upon entering high school, one of his friends was trumpeter Jimmy McPartland - later the husband of pianist (and NPR host) Marian McPartland. He began playing professionally in Chicago in 1927, as part of Thelma Terry and her Playboys - the first notable jazz band that was led by a woman (but which was not an all-female band). He also recorded with such noted Dixieland jazz stars as Eddie Condon and Bix Beiderbecke.
His first claim-to-fame came in December of that same year in a recording studio: where up-to-now, drummers only used a snare drum and cymbals on record. The recording engineer at Okeh Records was afraid that Krupa wanting to use his entire drum set would 'destroy our equipment' (which would be said by recording engineers about Jimi Hendrix nearly forty years later). But the company was delighted at the results.
In 1929, Krupa moved to New York, working regularly in the band of Red Nichols and hired to play in the pit band (for the play Strike Up the Band by George Gershwin) along with Glenn Miller and, critically, Benny Goodman. Goodman offered him a job in his Benny Goodman Trio - and later the Quartet - the first popular integrated jazz small group (with pianist Teddy Wilson and vibraphonist Lionel Hampton). Indeed, the Ken Burns documentary series Jazz showed a clip of the Quartet playing a furious piece - which sounded like the style which Cream and Traffic would employ decades later.
But his career broke wide-open when he was asked to join Goodman's full Orchestra in 1934, with Benny promising they'd become a high-octane swing band. Their late-night "Let's Dance" radio shows began to display that innovative style .... but on tour in 1935, audiences only wanted to hear "sweet" ballroom dance music (or so theater owners declared). Nearing the end of the disappointing tour at the Palomar Ballroom in Los Angeles, the audience seemed especially lackluster ... leading Krupa to tell Goodman, "Benny, if we're going to go down: let's go down swinging" - which the West Coast audience (having heard their East Coast late-night radio shows in prime time) were waiting for - and they exploded upon hearing King Porter Stomp with Krupa driving the band with force.
Eventually this led to the first jazz concert ever held at Carnegie Hall in January, 1938. And in particular: their performance of the Louis Prima tune Sing, Sing, Sing - with a memorable drum solo by Krupa - became one of the NPR 100 most important American musical works of the 20th Century. Indeed, Krupa became so popular among fans that Goodman began to resent having to feature a sideman in every tune, and after a public quarrel in Philadelphia, Krupa left to form his own Orchestra in March, 1938.
Gene Krupa was also beginning to make his mark away from the bandstand. He was the author of the influential instructional Gene Krupa Method book and appeared in movie roles (the 1939 Bob Hope film Some Like it Hot and "Beat the Band") and in 1941 launched an annual "Gene Krupa Drum Contest" - whose first winner would be the future star Louis Bellson (the husband of Pearl Bailey, who died only in 2009). Years later, he formed the Krupa-Cole Drum School in 1954 (along with drummer Cozy Cole).
Krupa's first orchestra had early success, but really blossomed when trumpeter Roy Eldridge and a nineteen year-old singer Anita O'Day joined his band. In her book High Times, Hard Times Anita O'Day always spoke highly of Gene. And in addition to "After You're Gone" and "Rockin' Chair", the orchestra had a major hit with Let Me Off Uptown - with the white woman (O'Day) and the black man (Eldridge) trading lyrics which were edgy for the day.
If this were the old VH-1 "Behind the Music" - the turning point in Gene Krupa's life came in the summer of 1943, when he was arrested in San Francisco on a marijuana charge (along with contributing to the delinquency of a minor). Both are widely believed to have been trumped-up charges, and Krupa was acquitted of the latter one. But he spent a good deal of his money fighting the drug charge, to no avail: convicted and sentenced to ninety days. This was a big deal publicity-wise in those days, and he fell into a funk (with Roy Eldridge unable to keep his old band afloat, and it folded). Then, he was offered a job by his old boss, Benny Goodman - and though their partnership did not last long, it revived his spirit. Gene Krupa formed a second Orchestra, with future baritone sax star Gerry Mulligan writing some innovative charts, and also featuring Red Rodney.
As big bands faded around 1950, Krupa went on to perform with the Norman Granz Jazz at the Philharmonic series, lead small groups, square-off against Buddy Rich in Drum Battles - and was then portrayed by Sal Mineo in the 1959 Gene Krupa Story film: which strayed frequently from the truth but featured Gene himself on the soundtrack. He posed for the famous 1958 A Great Day in Harlem photo - unsurprisingly, posing alongside many of his fellow drummers who appeared that day.
But a 1960 heart attack and worsening back trouble slowed Gene's career down, although he did continue to record, perform in various Benny Goodman Orchestra reunion shows and taught drums along the way. His career ended full-circle: with his final recording in 1972 with old friend Eddie Condon and his final concert with Benny Goodman in August, 1973. Gene Krupa died in October, 1973 at the age of 64 and is buried in Calumet City, Illinois. In 1978 the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame made him its very first inductee.
As Les Paul was to do for guitars and recording equipment: Gene Krupa also left a legacy in the field of drum sets. The H.H. Slingerland drum company of Chicago (which began in 1928) was made famous by Gene Krupa, and they worked with him on one noted innovation: manufacturing the first tuneable tom-toms (on both top and bottom heads) that gave drummers a wide range of sounds.
He also worked with the Turkish-founded, Massachusetts-based Avedis Zildjian cymbal makers, standardizing their range of cymbals (i.e., crash, ride, pang) as well as developing the modern hi-hat cymbals (an elevated pair operated by a foot pedal) which were previously a floor-level set-up, making stick playing impossible.
Some other legacies: stand-up comedians owe him a debt, as it was Krupa who is credited with popularizing the rim shot (of comedy club fame). And finally, when Gene Krupa taught drums in the late 1960's: among his pupils was one Peter Criscuola ... later known as Peter Criss of the band Kiss.
As a bandleader, Gene Krupa's best-known hit was Drum Boogie - co-written with Roy Eldridge - and it was a featured song in the 1941 Gary Cooper-Barbara Stanwyck film Ball of Fire where Gene Krupa and his band performed the tune (with Martha Tilton overdubbing the vocals for Barbara Stanwyck).
I cannot locate the video for that, but here is a version recorded with Anita O'Day.
You hear the rhythm romping
You see the drummer stomping
The rhythm ought to bend you
It's really going to send you
Drum boogie, drum boogie
It really is a killer
Drum boogie, drum boogie
The drum boogie-woogie