GENE KRUPA AND HIS ORCHESTRA – 1947-1949 | The Chronogical Classics – 1319 (2003) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

After Anita O'Day suddenly quit his band in 1946, Gene Krupa went out looking for a replacement female vocalist. He discovered Carolyn Grey performing with a no-name intermission band and hired her at once. Grey, who also sang with Woody Herman and Sonny Dunham, had a pleasant voice and may be heard at her best on "Old Devil Moon," the opening track of this 14th installment in the complete chronologically reissued works of Gene Krupa on Classics. These recordings, made in New York and Los Angeles between January 1947 and January 1949, all originally appeared on 78-rpm 10" red label Columbia records. During this portion of Krupa's career, stylistic adjustments were made to modernize the overall sound of the band. Gerry Mulligan's arrangement of his and Krupa's collaborative opus "Disc Jockey Jump" meets all the requirements of big-band bop. "By the River St. Marie" was the marvelously solid flip side of Columbia 38590. It's worth noting that some of the best solos on this compilation come from the saxophone section. As popular tastes demanded increasingly large quantities of sentimental vocals, Krupa employed Tom Berry and Buddy Hughes, a couple of standard-issue male crooners. Yet by the end of 1947, Krupa's band was sounding positively progressive, with flashy original compositions and arrangements by Eddie Finckel. Carolyn Grey had been replaced by Delores Hawkins, a comparatively deep-voiced individual who sounds much better here than on a horribly overbearing remake of "Let Me Off Uptown," where she carries on with all the subtlety of Cass Daley. The recordings made on January 26, 1949, feature Hawkins at her best during "Bop Boogie," excellent bop scat vocals from trombonist Frank Rosolino, deep tones from the timpani, and a bongo handler worthy of Machito's Orquesta. On the "exotic" "Similau," Bill Black's conventional crooning is strafed with lightning-quick bop scat runs sung in duet by Rosolino and Hawkins. This music, so emblematic of Krupa's (and Woody Herman's and Charlie Barnet's) passing involvement with bop during the late '40s, adds yet another dimension to the already diverse life and works of Gene Krupa. arwulf arwulf          Tracklist + Credits :

GENE KRUPA – 1949-1951 | The Chronogical Classics – 1359 (2004) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

 The 15th installment in the Classics Gene Krupa chronology opens with a big-band arrangement of a "madcap" melody by Soviet composer Dmitri Kabalevsky. The last of Krupa's Columbia records were cut in Los Angeles on May 9, 1949, with sanguine spoken outbursts and wild trumpet solos by Roy Eldridge. There's creamy singing from Bill Black and a stilted group vocal -- a routine borrowed from Tommy Dorsey -- during "Why Fall in Love with a Stranger." Delores Hawkins, heard at her sultriest on "Watch Out!," appears to be emulating Ella Fitzgerald. After more than ten years as a Columbia recording artist, Krupa switched over to Victor in March of 1950. Bassist Don Simpson wrote the arrangements for new versions of six melodies composed by Fats Waller, and for some strange reason known only to arranger George Williams, a big-band adaptation of Gene Autrey's "Dust" opens with a quote from Richard Strauss' tone poem Also Sprach Zarathustra. During the spring of 1950, Krupa began alternating his big-band dates with tight little blowing sessions featuring an old-fashioned Eddie Condon-type jazz band. Both bands featured vocalist Bobby Scoots, a lively specimen most appropriately chosen to sing the lyrics to that immortal discourse on the human condition, "Cincinnati Dancing Pig." The only antidote for this is a solid instrumental rendering of "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles," one of the most popular hits of 1919, here given the ham-and-eggs treatment by a band assisting Krupa in returning to his Chicago-style roots. arwulf arwulf
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