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Swing-Era Dossier

Chick Webb

1905 – 1939

Born

Feb 10, 1905, Baltimore, MD. Given name William Henry Webb. Only son and second of four children of William H. and Marie Johnson Webb; sisters Bessie, Mabel, and Ethel. Father died when Chick was 13; family moved in with maternal grandparents. Birth year long disputed — 1909 on death certificate and grave marker, 1907 in the 1939 New York Times obit, 1909 in a 1937 DownBeat piece; 1905 confirmed by census records and birth certificate.

Died

June 16, 1939, Baltimore, age 34. Spinal tuberculosis (Pott's disease). Final collapse came on a riverboat show in Washington, D.C. in early June; final hospitalization and spinal surgery at Johns Hopkins; never recovered. Last words reportedly: "I'm sorry, I've got to go." Funeral at Waters AME Church drew 1,000+ inside and ~10,000 lining the streets. Buried at Arbutus Memorial Park, Baltimore County.

Instruments

Drums — bought his first set at age 11 with newspaper-boy earnings. First professional gig at 11. Couldn't read music, but had perfect recall of complex arrangements.

Drum kit

Custom-built to fit a 4-ft-1 frame — 28-inch bass drum bolted to a platform, custom-made pedals, goose-neck cymbal holders, and a prominent cowbell. Took early lessons from Tommy Benford on arrival in New York.

Nicknames

  • "Chick" — given by other kids because of his tiny size.
  • Also called "King of the Savoy," "The Drum King," "King of Swing" (predating Goodman's claim to that title).

Physical

Four feet one inch tall with broad, powerful drummer's shoulders disproportionate to his small frame — the iconic Webb silhouette. Severely curved spine. Sat at the drums on a custom-built elevated stool that brought his seated eyeline to normal performing height, so photos of him at the kit look standard-scaled until you see him standing. Origin is sequential, not either/or: fell down stairs as an infant, crushing several vertebrae and requiring surgery from which he never regained full mobility, then developed Pott's disease (spinal tuberculosis). Doctors recommended drumming as therapy. In constant pain his whole life; reportedly passed out from exhaustion after sets but refused to stop touring during the Depression so the band could keep working.

Bands / years

  • Jazzola Orchestra (Baltimore, early teens) — played Chesapeake Bay steamers.
  • Moved to NYC 1924; drum lessons from Tommy Benford on arrival.
  • Jungle Band (1926); Harlem Stompers (1927, 8 pieces, expanded to 11) — renamed Chick Webb Orchestra.
  • Chick Webb Orchestra: house band at the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem from 1931.
  • After his death, Ella Fitzgerald led the band as Ella and Her Famous Orchestra until 1942.

Active

c. 1924–1939.

Signature tunes

"Stompin' at the Savoy" (1934, by Edgar Sampson — Webb made the first recording), "A-Tisket, A-Tasket" (1938, by Ella Fitzgerald & Van Alexander, based on a 19th-century nursery rhyme), "Don't Be That Way" (Edgar Sampson, 1933 — Webb first recorded; later a Goodman #1), "Liza" (George & Ira Gershwin with Gus Kahn, 1929), "Harlem Congo" (Harry White, 1937), "Clap Hands! Here Comes Charley" (Billy Rose / Mort Dixon / Ballard MacDonald, 1925). First recordings: "Dog Bottom" / "Jungle Man" (1929, Brunswick).

Famous compositions

  • None confirmed under Webb's name alone. His name appears as a co-credit on "Stompin' at the Savoy" (with Benny Goodman and Andy Razaf), but composer Edgar Sampson said in 1970: "The other names were put on for business reasons." Webb, like Lunceford, was a curator and conductor; the famous repertoire came from outside writers — chiefly Sampson, who was also his alto saxophonist 1933–35.

Savoy battles

  • May 11, 1937 — vs. Benny Goodman ("Battle of the Century"). ~5,000 inside the Savoy, thousands more outside. Crowd-applause win for Webb. Krupa: "I will never forget that night. Chick Webb cut me to ribbons."
  • January 16, 1938 — vs. Count Basie. So packed hundreds were turned away at the door. Webb declared the winner; Basie reportedly relieved; musicians argued the result for decades.
  • 1937 — vs. Duke Ellington. Lost.

Interesting facts

  • Discovered the 17-year-old Ella Fitzgerald at an Apollo Theater amateur contest in 1934 and began featuring her as the band's vocalist in 1935. He and his wife Sally became her informal guardians — the "legal adoption" story was a press-era myth (Stuart Nicholson's Fitzgerald biography is the corrective).
  • Talent-spotted Johnny Hodges, Benny Carter, Cootie Williams, Mario Bauzá — his band was a farm club for the giants. Britannica notes Hodges and Carter as early members specifically.
  • Picked up his earliest rhythmic vocabulary from fellow Baltimorean Eubie Blake's ragtime; followed Blake's path north to Harlem.
  • The first true drummer-bandleader — created the template Gene Krupa, Buddy Rich, Art Blakey, Max Roach, and Louie Bellson all credited. Buddy Rich called him "the daddy of them all."
  • Firsts under his name: first Black band to host a national radio show ("Good Time Society," NBC, 1935); first Black band to play the Park Central Hotel; first jazz artist booked at the Metropolitan Opera House.
  • Close friendship with Duke Ellington — they swapped band members like ballclubs trading players.
  • His alto saxophonist Edgar Sampson (1933–35) wrote both signature instrumentals — "Stompin' at the Savoy" and "Don't Be That Way." Sampson on the shared composer credits: "The other names were put on for business reasons. In musical terms I prefer Chick's version. Financially I prefer Benny's!"
  • "A-Tisket, A-Tasket" was a co-composition by 21-year-old Ella and 23-year-old arranger Van Alexander (born Al Feldman), based on a 19th-century nursery rhyme — recorded May 2, 1938, which happened to be Van Alexander's birthday.
  • Benny Goodman opened his historic 1938 Carnegie Hall concert with "Don't Be That Way" as a public tribute to Webb and Sampson — about seventeen months before Webb's death.
  • Yale honorary doctorate, 1938. Posthumous: Percussive Arts Society Hall of Fame, 1985. The Chick Webb Memorial Recreation Center near his East Baltimore childhood home was designated a Baltimore historical landmark Nov 17, 2017.
  • Feb 12, 1940 Baltimore benefit concert drew ~7,500; attendees included Joe Louis, Governor Herbert R. O'Conor, Ella Fitzgerald, his mother, his sister Mabel, and his widow Sally.

Sources