From the Moline Dispatch -- June 24, 2001 Profile of Josh Duffee, Krupa concert founder By Julie Jensen, Correspondent
The concert by Josh Duffee and His Orchestra will begin at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Moline Community Center, 1613 5th Ave., and tickets cost $5. Advance tickets may be purchased at Malcolm Jewelers, 1526 5th Ave., Moline.
Three weeks before the show, Mr. Duffee visited apartment complexes for the elderly with advance tickets because, he says, "The venue holds only about 400 people, and this is the music they grew up with. I want them to see that the youth of the area are keeping that music alive."
Mr. Duffee started on the drums in the 5th grade and played in the Moline High School jazz band. His mother, Cherie Duffee, says, "He didn't develop an interest in the drum set until his sophomore year and the beginning of his junior year, when he started taking lessons from Joel Dick, the drummer for the Kabalas. He had a big influence on Jeff.
"I always said Jeff was born in the wrong era. He loves music from the '30s and '40s just like my father did. He has been thinking about this tribute concert since last summer. For the past five summers, he has done a concert for neighbors and friends in the back yards, and last year he thought of doing it with a bigger group."
Josh Duffee and His Orchestra includes his John Deere Middle School band director, Chuck Comella, and he says, "Every musician in my group is a professional, and they love to perform any chance they get."
Mr. Duffee went to Western Illinois University, Macomb, planning to enter a five-year program that would prepare him for the business end of music, but his love of performance brought him back to Black Hawk College, where he was a member of the jazz band.
He won a $1,000 scholarship from the Bix Beiderbecke Memorial Society for being the outstanding band member in the Bix Beiderbecke Youth Band in 1998, and the Catfish Jazz Society gave him another $1,000 scholarship last year. Those organizations plus West Music are sponsoring the "Tribute to Gene Krupa."
He has been studying Gene Krupa's technique for the past four years, and he played at Sessions Jazz Club with Manny Lopez every Saturday night until the club closed. He is the drummer for the Anachronistics and enjoys playing music from the '20s and '30s with bandmates "Nervous" Neal Smith and Scott Morschhauser.
Although he wasn't born when Gene Krupa died Oct. 16, 1973, he has gotten close to the "ace drummer man" by collecting Krupa recordings made between 1927 and the year of his death.
"Gene Krupa was the drummer who made it possible for drummers like myself these days to take drum solos," he says. "The big band drummer used to be the timekeeper of the band and really never was allowed any solos. After Gene performed the tom-tom solo in `Sing, Sing, Sing' in January 1938, that rule changed."
As for the "Tribute," he says, "My orchestra is a group people can dance to and have fun listening to. The Community Center has a big dance floor, and I really want to see people out there dancing while we are playing because this is the music they could have danced to a long time ago. We hope to bring back some memories and put smiles on a lot of faces."
Gene Krupa was born in Chicago in 1909, the youngest of nine children. He started out on the sax in grade school but took up drums at 11 because they were the cheapest instrument in the music store where he worked with his brother.
He meant to be a priest, but his drumming drive was too strong. After all, he had been playing in a professional band since grade school. He honed his style by jamming with the likes of Tommy Dorsey, Bix Beiderbecke and Benny Goodman.
Like Bix, he never learned to read music, and when he was hired for the pit band of Gershwin's "Strike Up The Band," he faked his part during rehearsals. Glenn Miller helped him by humming the drum parts until he got them down.
He played with Benny Goodman's band until Goodman started to resent sharing the spotlight with him. In 1938, Krupa formed his own orchestra. In 1943, he was arrested in San Francisco on what some say were trumped up charges, possession of marijuana and contributing to the delinquency of a minor, and spent 84 days in jail. He was later cleared of the charges.
Krupa kept a full big band together until December of 1950, when most big bands were history, and a smaller version of it lasted through 1951. Even after that he was still often in the public eye. His new group, The Gene Krupa Trio; the drum school he founded; his portrayal by Sal Mineo in the film "The Gene Krupa Story" ; and numerous recordings followed the breakup of his big band.
Back problems slowed him down in the late 1950s, and he had a heart attack in 1960. Plagued by leukemia and emphysema, he continued to play until his last performance on Aug. 18, 1973. A fatal heart attack silenced his drums less than two months later, and he is buried in Calumet City, Ill.
Josh Duffee identifies with his idol closely, and his room is filled with pictures of the great drummer and other memorabilia which will be on display at the Moline Community Center the night of the "Tribute to Gene Krupa."
Usually, someone other than the band leader takes care of arrangements for an event like this, and Mr. Duffee says, "It's a lot for one person to take on, but I really wanted to do this for the area because this music probably hasn't been performed around here for about 60 years."
The performance is a good way to honor a great musician of the past and enjoy the great, young musicians of the present. Josh Duffee has played his drums with so many Krupa recordings that he'll make you think he's a reincarnation of the legendary percussionist.
Copyright 2001, Moline Dispatch Publishing Co.