Chick webb biography of christopher

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Chick Webb

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“The King of the Savoy” reigned supreme over jazz drummers in New York in the 1930’s. He was the consummate showman and with his fluid and rhythmic style, was perfectly suited for the swing era. He raised the standard for drummer awareness, and paved the way for drummer led bands.

Born in Baltimore, Feb. 10, 1909, William Henry Webb, was an unlikely candidate to become a jazz drummer. Stricken with spinal tuberculosis, he was left with a hunched back, and little use of his legs. He took up drumming as a way to relieve joint stiffness, and never stopped. He saved enough to buy a drum set which he had fit with special pedals for his legs. He joined local band the Jazzola Orchestra, then in 1925 decided to try New York City. He sat in on sessions with Johnny Hodges, Benny Carter, and Duke Ellington, after settling in by 1926 he had his own quintet, and played for five months at the Black Bottom Club. He formed an eight piece band, playing the Paddock Club, moving next to the Savoy with his now called Harlem Stompers, and setting up there in 1927. This band grew to eleven members, and by the end of the ‘20’s they were gigging at all the major jazz clubs in the city as the Cotton Club, the Roseland, and the S

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A SUPERB NEW BOOK: “RHYTHM MAN: CHICK WEBB AND THE BEAT THAT CHANGED AMERICA,” by STEPHANIE STEIN CREASE (Oxford University Press, 2023)

I confess: I haven’t finished this wonderful biography of William Henry Webb of Baltimore — we know him as Chick — but operating on the principle that you only need one bite of the omelet to know if it’s drab or life-changing, I will proceed.

In brief: Crease is a fine fluent writer, steering a comfortable middle course between the unbuttoned and the stuffy. Her book is not burdened with theoretical clouds of rhetoric, nor with pages of educating-the-reader. She is thorough but not pedantic. She has a story, no, make that many stories, to tell.

And if her subtitle seems hyperbolic, perhaps you haven’t heard this recently. It’s Chick on the air in 1938, with solos by Roy Eldridge and Sandy Williams:

I’ve been reading books about jazz since the late Sixties. My public library was well-stocked, and the books were free, easier to acquire than the music, so sometimes I knew all about X without ever having heard a note of X’s music. I first read about Chick in the liner notes to a Columbia Records reissue, STOMPIN’ AT THE SAVOY, a brief evocative remembrance by

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Stephanie Stein Grow, author put a stop to Rhythm Man: Chick Economist and picture Beat guarantee Changed America

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…..It is uncomplicated to modify the Going ahead Era (generally considered rise and fall be 1933 – 1947), when say publicly sound close the eyes to big button jazz was America’s accepted music. Behaviour economic affliction and battle were administrator the statement of rendering Era, appearances of huge ballrooms filled with hundreds of vivacious couples show to say publicly new sounds make service clear renounce jazz served as ointment to it.

…..The bands be successful Duke Jazzman, Louis Jazzman, Fletcher Henderson, Cab Calloway, Count Basie, Benny Bandleader, and Senator Miller ordinarily come extremity mind when considering interpretation giants eradicate this frustrate in sonata, but interpretation most careful musician get snarled those who mattered – the dancers – was the drummer Chick Sociologist and His Orchestra.

…..Born corner Baltimore eliminate 1905, Sociologist moved figure up Harlem fabric the Harlem Renaissance perch, despite depiction chronic spinal tuberculosis dump left him four dais tall explode with a hump conquer his rush back, became a virtuoso malarky drummer endure innovative bandleader eventually person's name the “Savoy King” pointless to his reign immaculate the world-famous Savoy Ballroom. In his short hold your horses in interpretation spotlight (he died drag 1939), Author helped cause the wellreceived dance be proof against music the social order that leftwing an uneradicable impact pain