KRUPA AND RICH Buddy Rich & Gene Krupa FULL ALBUM

The question was once put squarely to Gene Krupa: What do you think of Buddy Rich? With no hesitation, Krupa replied: ‘Buddy Rich?’ I think Buddy Rich is the greatest drummer in the world today, bar none. Can I make it any more empathic than that?”

Reverse the scene. Turn the tables. Put Buddy Rich on the spot with the same question. “You want to know what I think of Gene Krupa?” said Buddy Rich. “Well, where do you begin? Gene Krupa was the beginning and the ‘end’ of all Jazz drummers. He’s a great genius - a truly great genius of the drums. Gene discovered things that could be done with the drums that hadn’t been done before, ever. He discovered these things and made the most of them …. I’ll tell you about Gene. Before Gene, the drums were in the background, just part of the band. To put it in plainer terms, the drums didn’t have much - meaning. Along comes Gene and the drums take on a meaning and their out of the background. The drummer becomes - somebody. Gene gets credit for making people aware of the drummer - of what he’s doing and why he’s doing it and he deserves every bit of that credit. Can you imagine Jazz without Gene?”