[SYN-047]
With one exception, all the recordings here span the years from 1938 to 1949, when Krupa was recording for Columbia (save for a brief hiatus following his 1943 arrest for drug possession). Among the band's other star players are trumpeter Roy Eldridge, singer Anita O'Day, and saxophonists Charlie Ventura and Charlie Kennedy. All the big '40s hits are included — "After You've Gone," "Let Me Off Uptown," "Opus No. 1" — and Krupa's strong Dixieland roots emerge on songs like "I Hope Gabriel Likes My Music." The only track not performed by the Krupa band closes out the set: "Sing, Sing, Sing," recorded with Goodman in 1937, and a tune that will forever be linked with this pioneer of the skins and his trademark theatrics. — Mac Randall