Search - Roy Eldridge :: Uptown

Just a taste of one great band

Robert C. Topper | Richardson, Texas | 06/26/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Great collection of sides recorded by Gene Krupa in the 40's for OKeh and Columbia. Selected primarily to feature Roy Eldridge and his trumpet, but also spotlighting Anita O'Day, including the hits "Let Me Off Uptown" and "The Walls Keep Talking". Also includes a couple of cuts where Anita and Howard Dulany were doing their Helen O'Connell/Bob Eberly impersonations, as well as some vocals by Dolores Hawkins. Altogether a fine demonstration of why Krupa had one of the best bands of the era. I'm waiting for a Volume 2 from this group; there's plenty more from where these came from."

A must for your CD collection

Gene DeSantis | Philadelphia, PA United States | 01/21/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It's a measure of the record industry's incompetence in selling its back product that you really have to hunt down Gene Krupa's Columbia/OKeh output, currently divided among four official albums: a set of early Krupas from after the drummer flew the Goodman coop, an album featuring that surpassing chanteuse Anita O'Day, a recent Collectables package of the band's postwar years, and the present CD, head-scratchingly listed in the Sony catalog under Roy Eldridge. This is by far the best, and an absolute must for any music collection. The Krupa band is never less than electrifying, especially with Eldridge, a direct heir to Satchmo's legacy, perhaps jazz' second greatest trumpeter -- and a saucy vocalist to boot, who generates enduring heat in his vocals with the equally enduring Miss O'Day. Odd too because many of the best titles here would be sneered at as "novelties," like "Watch the Birdie" or the thoroughly beguiling early Frank Loesser "Murder! He Says." These songs are anything but gimmicky in the presentation.



I suspect it was an accident, or perhaps a rare record-company longing to be generous, that compelled the album's producer to add four tracks from Krupa's 1949 band. The drummer had been through a lot -- the trumped-up pot charges, Miss O'Day's nervous breakdown, several years in the wilderness -- before settling down with a bop-oriented group that recorded all too little. If anyone could have made a commercial go of bop, it was Krupa. These four tracks are as sensational as big bands ever got. Listen to "Watch Out!" with the sultry notes of Dolores Hawkins, a vocalist who seems to have come and gone without much of a trace, and you'll know that the sex very broadly hinted at in "Let Me Off Uptown" becomes quite explicit. Gene Krupa knew what he was doing.



Technical note: the sound is very good, save for an unaccountably rejected Jule Styne tune, "Barrelhouse Bessie from Basin Street," taken from a poor-quality transfer of a test pressing. Legacy rectified this in the later Anita O'Day album, which is essential for other reasons."

The best krupa band ever (and that's saying a lot.)

Raymond Leach | AUSTIN, TEXAS United States | 12/14/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is one of the cd's that must be in my truck at all times. Any one that does not tap their toes simply does not have a pulse. Included in this album are wartime cuts `Harlem On Parade', and `Keep Em Flying'. My personal favorites are `Green Eyes', `Watch The Birdie', and ANY other cut from this album. The best!"