Gene Krupa: That Legendary Drummin' Man's 100th Birthday

He was born on January 15, 1909, and became the first superstar drummer in popular music. Drumming anoraks will tell you that he was the first to use a bass drum pedal on recordings and invented the rim shot on the snare drum.

A double achievement of which to be proud. But Eugene Bertram Krupa was much more than the king of swing — he lived the rock’n’roll lifestyle decades before rock’n’roll, spending three months in jail for marijuana possession (a 1959 biopic starring the tragic Sal Mineo as Krupa had him saying the memorable but terrible line: “Reefers huh? So that’s what they look like.” ). He also knew and played with some of the stellar names, from Bix Beiderbecke to Benny Goodman and Tommy Dorsey. More than enough then to fill the four programmes in this series.