Gene Krupa about Swing, Symphony, Cuba Austin, Louis Armstrong and and Bix Beiderbecke. From the Daily Illini (student newspaper), 24 September 1938. KRUPA BELIEVES SWING MUSIC MAKING SYMPHONY BETTER INDIANAPOLIS . Sept 23. Gene Krupa . 29-year-old leader of the nations youngest big-time swing orchestra , said here today he believed swing music was making symphony better . The dark , touslc-haired young drummer , who quit Benny Goodman last April to start his own 11-piece band , expressed belief swing the modern music of strong rhythm and free improvising was turning out musicians better fitted to interpret classics and later on would produce marvelous composers of symphonies . Swing musicians when they get old and too lame and crippled to swing out take up classical music , he explained . To this , he said , they brought , besides technique and note reading, the feeling and the ability to improvise and create which swing required . He said he knew several good swing men who wanted to write symphonies later and forecast their knowledge of swing would make them better composers . Krupa described swing as really a first cousin to symphony . He said it was the greatest music ever played , marked a new era in music and today was only in its infancy . The young band leader , born on Chicagos south side , learned his first music from his piano teacher and still takes a shot at Bach inventions once in a while to steady his nerves . He once studied at St . Josephs College at Collegeville, Ind . His first idol in hot music was Cuba Austin, Negro drummer of Mc Kinneys Cotton Pickers . He believes Bix Beiderbecke , trumpet player now dead , was the greatest of all swing musicians . He calls Louis Armstrong , Negro trumpet man and father of swing , the greatest living instrumentalist . Krupa plays drums so hard he wears out two dozen pairs of drumsticks and one drumhead a week . He sweats at it like a steam-table cook on a hot day , but says he doesnt get very tired because he lays off liquor , sleeps a lot and goes light on outdoor sports . ######################################### I am fascinated by first-hand accounts from musicians. They come up with amazing assertions. I cant think of a jazz musician who became a composer of symphonies in his old age when he was too lame and crippled to swing out. Do you guys know of any?
Posted on: Tue, 25 Mar 2014 17:04:34 +0000
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