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Great Encounters
When Gene Krupa hired Roy Eldridge
Paul Testa
Gene Krupa on drums, Roy Eldridge to his left
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Excerpted from
Roy
Eldridge: Little Jazz Giant
by
John Chilton
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Listen to Anita O'Day, Roy Eldridge and Gene Krupa play
Let
Me Off Uptown
(complete song in Real Audio file)
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The booking at the Capitol was extended into 1941, but
Roy's long term prospects looked no better than they had a year earlier.
However, Roy's old friend drummer Gene Krupa was about to offer him a
life-changing opportunity. Krupa had finished his stint with Benny Godman
almost three years earlier and was now one of the foremost bandleaders of
the era. Krupa's Band played at the Hotel Sherman in Chicago during late
1940 and Gene often visited the Capitol (with his wife Ethel and manager
Frank Verniere) after he'd finished his sets. Sometimes Roy went off with
Gene to find a nightspot on the South Side where they could jam and eat ribs.
During this Chicago stay Roy, as ever, was always game for an "after-work"
blow, and when Cab Calloway's Band was in town he greatly enjoyed jamming
at the Du Sable Hotel with his old sidekick Chu Berry (sadly, not long after
these sessions, Chu lost his life in an automobile accident). Roy took no
rest on Sundays, he usually played at jam sessions organized by Harry Lim.
During Krupa's Chicago stay, his trumpeter Clarence "Shorty" Sherock had
to miss a couple of dates and Gene was delighted when Roy agreed to deputize.
Krupa had always been a fan of Roy's playing, but his admiration increased
when he felt the degree of swing that Roy's musical presence brought to the
band. Krupa, encouraged by Shorty Sherock's enthusiasm for the idea, decided
to offer Roy a permanent place with the band. Roy was thrilled to receive
the invitation but pointed out that he was still under contract to Joe Glaser,
who would have to approve the deal; Roy had also taken the lease on an apartment
at 55th and Michigan. Metronome magazine must have been well abreast
of the situation: a small news item in its November 1940 issue was headed
"Eldridge for Krupa?" Meanwhile, Roy played through to the end of his booking
at the Capitol Lounge, prior to beginning a four-week stint at the Blatz
Club in Milwaukee (from February 26, 1941). When that was completed Roy disbanded
and moved back to New York prior to playing a split-week in Providence, Rhode
Island, as a guest star with Gene Krupa. Things went well, so Roy decided
to request formally that Joe Glaser release him from his contract, but Glaser
insisted that Krupa would have to pay for the five years that were left on
the agreement which Roy had signed with him in 1938. Roy went to the White
Rose Bar in New York and relayed this information to Krupa's manager, who
told Roy that Gene didn't want to pay for the contract. After further
negotiations, Glaser agreed to sell the contract back to Roy for $1,000 -
the amount to be paid in installments from money taken from Roy's wages with
Krupa.
Roy was now at liberty to become a full-time member of
Gene's Band. He did so by joining the outfit for their six-week residency
at New York's Hotel Pennsylvania, beginning in April 1941. Roy's wages were
$150 a week, $25 more than he had been making with his own quintet in Chicago.
Roy was happy with the deal, but realistically pointed out, "I turned out
to be the big thing for the band." Swing fans were absolutely delighted by
Roy's move, as were the musicians in Krupa's Band. According to Canadian
trumpeter Graham Young (then only 19 years old) the band had recently been
taken apart in a "Battle of the Bands" with Jimmie Lunceford's Orchestra
at a ballroom in Baltimore:
| We lost terribly. There had been talk about hiring Roy Eldridge
but the officials at M.C.A., who ran the band at the time, were afraid of
the public reaction of having a black person sitting in a white band. However,
after the Lunceford fiasco, Gene just hired Roy the next day and didn't ask
M.C.A. |
The only disgruntled note came from the Chicago
Defender's columnist Al Monroe, who, under a heading "Roy Eldridge Turns
Ofay to Hook up with Gene Krupa," wrote:
| Fletcher Henderson and Roy Eldridge both had bands and broke them
up to accept positions with the outfits with which they now travel. This
meant that many musicians were thrown out of work. Raiding bands is new to
the profession. It means more money, perhaps, for a few musicians, but will
this offset the harm it does to our name Negro bands. |
At the time, Roy commented, "While I was happy leading
my own band, I found I had limitations, and at times it was tough keeping
the men together." Graham Young (who became a lifelong friend of Roy) spoke
of Eldridge's stay in Krupa's band:
| Roy was a wonderful man and he said he wouldn't join the band
if it meant any of the trumpet players had to get fired, so he came on as
a feature. No arrangements were written for him at that time, he had to take
some of the jazz solos that Shorty Sherock had been playing. After a while,
Shorty flipped and got mad at Roy (not at Gene), so Shorty was gone. Roy
sat next to me, he was a great guy and inventive. Every night was a jazz
lesson, and it was like that for a year and a half. |
It wasn't only the band's trumpeters who benefited from
Roy's arrival; the rhythm section also felt they had been given a huge lift
by Eldridge's playing. Bassist Ovid "Biddy" Bastien emphasized this, saying:
| Back in 1940, I met Roy through pianist Tony D'Amore: we were
both with Gene Krupa and Roy invited us up to his apartment in Harlem for
a jam session. We had a great time musically and socially, so it was a pleasure
to welcome him into Gene's band. Shorty Sherock was also a real good pal
of mine, but he knew he wasn't the jazz trumpeter that Roy was; he tried
to play like Roy but to my ears it came out more like Ziggy Elman. |
Shorty Sherock was a great fan of Roy's playing, and
took his admiration to the point where he had his suits made in the same
style as Roy, he ordered the same type of spectacles, and bought the same
model of car that Roy drove (a La Salle convertible). He was delighted to
have made a private recording with Roy, together with pianist Tony D'Amore
and Lloyd Hundling (a trumpeter and vocalist with Charlie Barnet's Band,
who lost his life in August 1941 as a result of the car crash that killed
guitarist Gus Etri). Roy said the acetate recordings were made at his apartment
"just for fun," and the only title he could remember was The Sheik of
Araby. Shorty Sherock's then wife was Jean Bach, who said:
| Shorty certainly idolized Roy's playing, and took inspiration
from it, so much so that trumpeter Bobby Burnet commented on the fact, which
led Shorty to say, "When I change, I change all the way." Shorty was very
likeable, a darling blond teddy bear, and he kept suggesting that Gene hire
Roy. But when Roy played in the band Gene found himself thinking, "This is
the real thing," and though Gene was a decent, sweet guy he didn't feel like
keeping Roy and Shorty, so Shorty left. He was getting $85 a week then, but
had already drawn his wages in advance. Roy and Shorty certainly didn't become
enemies: in fact their friendship stayed as before. But Roy, who I'd known
since Three Deuces days, asked me one day "How's Shorty?" When I told him
he was fine, Roy said, to my surprise, "But like all ofays he turned." |
At the heart of the problem was the fact that Roy was
allocated a lot of what had been Shorty's solo spots, and naturally Shorty,
who had less and less to play, became vexed. After suffering for five nights
at the Café Rouge section of the Hotel Pennsylvania, Shorty launched
into an altercation with Krupa's manager Frank Verniere, and ended his
association with the Krupa Band (he left and soon joined Tommy Dorsey). From
this point on Roy ceased to be a featured attraction out-front of the band,
and instead took his place in the four-piece trumpet section. Roy was still
known as "Little Jazz," but his new colleagues admiringly called him "Leather
Lip" (a name that Joe Marsala had originally used about Roy) because of his
stamina, range and power. Gene Krupa summed up the esteem that he, and his
musicians, felt: "Roy became our spark plug. Every time he played it was
like a light going on in a dark room." Roy and Gene shared a relaxed friendship
that was apparent both on and off the stage. Critic Barry Ulanov commented
on the band's stay at the Hotel Pennsylvania:
| Roy Eldrige is almost singly responsible for making the Gene Krupa
Band the fine outfit it is today. His volatile personality and incredibly
versatile trumpeting have sparked the band to a point where it can truly
be said to be coming on. |
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Roy
Eldridge: Little Jazz Giant
by
John Chilton
*
From
Roy
Eldridge: Little Jazz Giant. Used by permission of John Chilton
and Continuum
Press
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Great Encounters Archive
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