Chick Webb is one of the most remarkable figures in the history of jazz. A native of Baltimore, MD, Webb was born in 1905 and only lived to be 34 years old. Despite the spinal tuberculosis that left him with a 4’ 2” stature and a hunched back, Webb became one of the most influential drummers and one of the most popular bandleaders of the swing era.
Beginning in 1931, Webb’s orchestra was the house band at Harlem’s legendary Savoy Ballroom. They drew huge crowds, including gravity-defying lindy-hoppers and world-famous celebrities. In battle pairings with some of the most popular dance bands of the day such as Count Basie’s Orchestra and Benny Goodman’s band, Webb’s take-no-prisoners drumming left no question as to who emerged victorious. Gene Krupa famously got up and bowed to Chick Webb after being soundly beaten in the Goodman-Webb encounter.
Webb’s approach to big band drumming wasn’t just pyrotechnics. He utilized the whole drum set and created subtle shadings that enhanced the band’s performances. His approach inspired scores of drummers that came after, including Buddy Rich, Big Sid Catlett and Louis Bellson. Modernists like Kenny Clarke, Max Roach, Art Blakey and Roy Haynes also acknowledged Webb’s influence.
In 1935, Webb took a chance on a seventeen-year-old street singer who won an amateur talent contest at the Apollo Theatre. Ella Fitzgerald’s meteoric rise to fame began with Webb’s big band. The first lady of song stayed with the band even after Webb’s death in 1939, and, for a short time, the Chick Webb band became the Ella Fitzgerald Orchestra.
Other notable musicians that worked with Webb included arrangers Edgar Sampson and Van Alexander, pioneering Latin Jazz trumpeter Mario Bauza and saxophonist and iconic Rhythm and Blues star Louis Jordan.
Webb’s amazing story is told in a new book by Stephanie Stein Crease called Rhythm Man: Chick Webb and the Beat that Changed America. The publisher is Oxford University Press.
In this segment, Crease talks about how she researched the book, discusses the music that shaped Webb when he grew up in Baltimore, talks about his ascendancy as the King of the Savoy and debunks some of the myths surrounding the iconic drummer and bandleader.
Listen to Stephanie Stein Crease’s Chick Webb Spotify playlist here.
