Gene Krupa

Krupa died of leukemia and heart failure in Yonkers, New York, aged 64. He was buried in Holy Cross Cemetery in Calumet City, Illinois.

Norman Granz recruited Krupa and fellow drummer Buddy Rich for his Jazz at The Philharmonic concerts. It was suggested that the two perform a 'drum battle' at the Carnegie Hall concert in September 1952, which was recorded and later issued on vinyl (a CD edition called The Drum Battle at JATP appeared courtesey of Verve in 1999). Further drum battles took place at subsequent JATP concerts; the two drummers also faced off in a number of television broadcasts.

Krupa and Rich recorded two studio albums together; the first was titled Krupa and Rich (Verve, 1955) and the second called Burnin' Beat (Verve, 1962).

In the 1930s, Krupa prominently featured Slingerland drums. At Krupa's urging, Slingerland developed tom-toms with tuneable top and bottom heads, which immediately became important elements of virtually every drummer's set-up. Krupa developed and popularized many of the cymbal techniques that became standards. His collaboration with Armand Zildjian of the Avedis Zildjian Company developed the modern hi-hat cymbals and standardized the names and uses of the ride cymbal, the crash cymbal, the splash cymbal, the pang cymbal and the swish cymbal. One of his drum sets, a Slingerland inscribed with Benny Goodman's and Krupa's initials, is preserved at the Smithsonian museum in Washington, D.C. Read Less

Gene Krupa's "Syncopated Style" is mentioned by a street musician in the 1976 film Taxi Driver.

In 1978, Krupa became the first drummer inducted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame.

Krupa was mentioned in the Simpsons episode "Hurricane Neddy", when Ned Flanders parents are being told they must control Ned, Ned's father responds "We can't do it man! That's discipline! That's like tellin' Gene Krupa not to go "Boom boom bah bah bah, boom boom bah bah bah, boom boom boom bah bah bah bah, boom boom tss!"".

Rhythm, the UK's best selling drum magazine voted Gene Krupa the third most influential drummer ever, in a poll conducted for its February 2009 issue. Voters included over 50 top-name drummers.

Gene Krupa is tributed during a drum solo by Neil Peart on Rush's "Snakes and Arrows" live DVD. "Malignant Narcissism" segues to a Peart solo titled "De Slagwerker" (Dutch for "The Drummer") during which videos play on the stage screen behind him. Near the end, short clips of Gene Krupa performances are shown. Read Less