Gene Krupa's big band made a sizable number of records for OKeh and Columbia during the 1940s, with gaping holes in the chronology caused by a World War and two AFM recording bans. The Classics reissue label presents all of this material in chronological order, with this volume covering a time line from October 1941 to February 1942. The main attractions throughout are perky, sensual vocalist
Anita O'Day and trumpet archetype
Roy "Little Jazz" Eldridge, who is particularly exciting on the instrumental "Ball of Fire." This disc just happens to contain some of
O'Day's tastiest performances; "Skylark" and "Side by Side" are richly rewarding, as is a previously unreleased take of
Jimmy Mundy's "Bolero at the Savoy." She also demonstrates a penchant for scat singing on the disarmingly cool "That's What You Think." Safer and more conventional pop vocals were emitted by
Giovanni Alfredo di Simone, a wholesome young fellow from Detroit known in the music business as
Johnny Desmond. Given the militaristically inclined material chosen by many of the big bands during the months preceding the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, it is clear that the U.S. was preparing for war. During
Gene Krupa's recording session of June 5, 1941,
Howard DuLany had sung "'Til Reveille," a sentimental offering directed at armed forces personnel who were separated from their loved ones (see Classics 1006,
Gene Krupa 1941, Vol. 2). On November 25, 1941,
Johnny Desmond chortled away during "Keep 'Em Flying," a zealous paean to the war effort that predates said war by nearly two weeks. By January and February of 1942,
Desmond was in full harness with "The Marines' Hymn" and "The Caissons Go Rolling Along." By August of that year
Desmond would find himself playing cymbals in
the United States Air Force Band. His next involvement with a jazz-inflected big band would be as a member of
the Glenn Miller Orchestra. Meanwhile,
Anita O'Day paid dutiful tribute to "Fightin' Doug MacArthur" and even saluted Afro-American soldiery with "Harlem on Parade," a cousin to
Irving Berlin's "That's What the Well-Dressed Man in Harlem Will Wear." These tracks prove that she could handle any subject matter without copping out or losing her cool. Here, then, is a variegated slice of history, packed with equal parts jazz and U.S. pop culture. The CD booklet contains a vintage photograph of
Anita O'Day, looking dolled up and more than slightly dangerous.