The Master of Drums: Gene Krupa and the Music He Gave the World

The first definitive biography of Gene Krupa, the most famous drummer on the planet, whose feverish rhythms leapt across genres to change music forever. From jazz to the Swing Era, to rock and roll, Elton John’s biographer, Elizabeth J. Rosenthal, recounts the pioneering drummer’s exploits, challenges, and accomplishments, while framing him against not just his fellow musicians and peers but the music industry and general culture as a whole.

From the early 1930s onward, Gene Krupa was a drum-centric rarity in the jazz world. Never before had a drummer been in the forefront as a solo artist. His galvanizing, unrestrained passion for percussion demanded it. Rocking the rafters, Gene thrilled audiences in ballrooms, nightclubs, and movies. He always knew he would. It was in his blood.

Seemingly born jazz-drum crazy in 1909 to a Polish-immigrant working-class family in South Chicago, Gene was a professional by the age of thirteen and soon made his first recordings. By the early 1930s, he was New York City’s most in-demand drummer, and in 1934, joined brilliant clarinetist Benny Goodman’s band, helped inaugurate the Swing Era, and played the first-ever swing concert at Carnegie Hall. It made history. So did Gene, whose celebrity spread with every ride cymbal beat and bass drum bomb drop. He formed his own band, hired such dazzlingly outsized personalities as singer Anita O’Day, and unconditionally shattered racial boundaries by sharing the spotlight with the blistering African-American trumpeter Roy Eldridge. But after a skyrocketing ride to the top, Gene experienced a rollercoaster ride of good and bad luck, emotional highs, and devastating depths.

In The Master of Drums, biographer Elizabeth J. Rosenthal crafts a celebratory, honest, and exhaustively researched portrait of a twentieth-century music legend whose acolytes would include such rock-era artists as Ringo Starr, Keith Moon, John Bonham, and Apollo 440. When he died, Gene Krupa may have left behind a world of grieving friends, colleagues, fans, students, and progeny, but as The Master of Drums proves, his dynamic musical and cultural influences live on.