Gene Krupa - Drums Drums Drums (2002)

The first drummer to be a superstar, Gene Krupa may not have been
the most advanced drummer of the 1930s but he was in some ways the
most significant. Prior to Krupa, drum solos were a real rarity and
the drums were thought of as a merely supportive instrument. With
his good looks and colorful playing, he became a matinee idol and
changed the image of drummers forever.

This 20-song collection, evidently made up of radio airchecks that
are effectively out of copyright overseas, makes a good companion to
Sony's Gene Krupa hits and Anita O'Day/Roy Eldridge collections. It
doesn't have "Let Me Off Uptown", but it does include O'Day's
extraordinary "Boogie Blues", "Bolero At The Savoy" and
"Massachusetts" and performances by scat-singing star Leo Watson.

Further, Roy Eldridge is featured on at least half the cuts here in
prominent solos, but the producers have also included tracks by the
later Krupa line-ups, which included Charlie Ventura and Gerry
Mulligan, working in leaner, more modern jazz surroundings. The
sound quality is above average for the period, with minimal
distortion and a clean, close sound. The drums, of course, are
prominent (nowhere more so than on 'Wire Brush Stomp'), but the
solos by Eldridge and the other featured members of Krupa's various
bands also come out loud and richly textured.

Of the music itself, there's only one really weak link here, Krupa's
much-too-fast treatment of the Richard Rodgers/Lorenz Hart waltz
"Lover", and it is more than made up for by the presence of O'Day's
singing on "That's What You Think".