GETTING THE CROUP

In A. James Liska’s review of the Big Band Hit Parade Concert at Ambassador Auditorium, he says Brent Brace (the drummer with the Gene Krupa Orchestra) “keeps better time than Krupa ever did” (“Nostalgia Marches on Without the Krupa Beat,” Jan. 16).

I am sure Brace himself would be the first to say that Krupa was one of the very best. Ask Buddy Rich about Krupa. Or ask Louie Bellson.

Or better still, just listen to anything that Krupa ever recorded. Krupa may have been showy; he may even have been (at times) somewhat bombastic. But if Krupa was anything at all, he was a supremely talented musician with a rock-solid sense of time and a formidable technique.

Liska has fallen into the trap of confusing showmanship with a lack of talent. I would suggest that the best newspaper in Los Angeles could well afford to reconsider Liska’s credentials before printing any more of his ill-founded statements.

HYAM R. SOSNOW

Van Nuys