Gene Krupa: Disc Jockey Jump

Gerry Mulligan was 19 when jazz superstar Gene Krupa waxed the lanky kid arranger's "Disc Jockey Jump." Like many panicky postwar big-band leaders, Krupa hoped to salvage his endangered species by hopping on the bop wagon. He was wrong, of course. Mulligan's chart is agreeably boppish and his tune delightfully bouncy, but he couldn't overcome the retro rhythm section, mired like Krupa himself in the Swing Era. Gene's "Sing, Sing, Sing"-style drumming should have been sent up the river to Sing Sing. About Mulligan, though, Krupa was right. Talent will out.