Pianist Teddy Napoleon played steadily with Gene Krupa's Orchestra from 1944 until the late '40s, continuing with the drummer's bands intermittently throughout the '50s. Teddy was the older brother of Marty Napoleon.
The snapshot above comes from Betty's fabulous collection of photos, sent along by her friend Chris. Betty has donated all of her prints, including this one, to Rutgers University's Institute of Jazz Studies. But since she and Chris also are big JazzWax readers, they wanted you to see them, too.
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Here's Gene Krupa in George White's Scandals (1945). Napoleon is seen briefly on piano in Ed Finckel's arrangement of Leave Us Leap, one of the great drum film scenes of all time...
He toured Japan with the Gene Krupa Trio in 1952 during the Korean War. Krupa, Napoleon, and Charlie Ventura (who wowed them with a set on a bass sax). They did a concert at the Ernie Pyle Theater in Tokyo. I interviewed them in their dressing room for broadcast on Far East Network Tokyo. We recorded the concert and played selections on my Time for Jazz broadcast. I was with the Far East Network in Tokyo. Great memories.
Posted by: Merwin Smith | November 25, 2011 at 04:56 PM
Thanks, Mr. Smith. I envy you 'cause you've met and have seen the great drummin' man in action. Great memories indeed.
"Leave Us Leap" is so hot, the right sound for November. Will post it @ my blog, linked to this article.
Posted by: Brew | November 26, 2011 at 01:54 PM