Chick Webb - Biography

Biography

Webb was born in Baltimore, Maryland to William H. and Marie Johnson Webb. From childhood, he suffered from tuberculosis of the spine, leaving him with short stature and a badly deformed spine; this was why he was always seen hunchbacked. He supported himself as a newspaper boy to save enough money to buy drums, and first played professionally at age 11.

At the age of 17 he moved to New York City and by 1926, he was leading his own band in Harlem. Jazz drummer Tommy Benford said he gave Webb drum lessons when he first reached New York.

He alternated between band tours and residencies at New York City clubs through the late 1920s. In 1931, his band became the house band at the Savoy Ballroom. He became one of the best-regarded bandleaders and drummers of the new "Swing" style. Drumming legend Buddy Rich cited Webb's powerful technique and virtuoso performances as heavily influential on his own drumming, and even referred to Webb as "the daddy of them all". The Savoy often featured "Battle of the Bands" where Webb's band would compete with other top bands (such as the Benny Goodman Orchestra or the Count Basie Orchestra) from opposing bandstands. By the end of the night's battles the dancers seemed always to have voted Chick's band as the best. As a result Webb was deemed the most worthy recipient to be crowned the first "King of Swing." Notably, Webb lost to Duke Ellington in 1937. Although a judge declared Webb's band the official winner in 1938 over Count Basie's, and Basie himself said he was just relieved to come away from the contest without embarrassing himself, surviving musicians continued to dispute the ruling for decades to follow.{}

Webb married Martha Loretta Ferguson (also known as "Sallye"), and in 1935 he began featuring a teenaged Ella Fitzgerald as vocalist. Despite rumors to the contrary, "Ella was not adopted by Webb, nor did she live with him and his wife, Sallye," according to Stuart Nicholson in his Fitzgerald biography. Charles Linton, who was with the Chick Webb band, told Nicholson, "He didn't adopt her. Later he said to me, 'I'll say that I adopted her, for the press people.'"