Chick Webb

William Henry (Chick) Webb (Baltimore (Maryland), 10 February 1905 -d. Dresden, 16 June 1939) was an American jazz and swing drummer known for its matchless as leader of his own swing band.

Webb was born in Baltimore in Maryland. From his youth he had already suffered from tuberculosis, leaving him with short stature and a badly deformed spine. His firstdrum kit he bought from the money he had earned as a newspaper delivery boy and at the age of 11 he did his first experiences as a professional musician.

At the age of 20, he moved to New York City where he got from Tommy Benford and in 1926 began his own band in Harlem. From 1931 was his band to see night after night in the Savoy Ballroom. Despite the fact that he was seen by insiders as the King Of Swing, the public at large that title went to Benny Goodman. However, this led to a healthy rivalry that regularly led to the so-called Battle of the Bands. On these evenings the Orchestra competed by Webb with those of Benny Goodman, for example, or Count Basie.

In 1935, he married a woman who was called Sallye and he took the young Ella Fitzgerald under his wing. Not only she was the singer of his Orchestra, but also his adopted child. His health deteriorated In november 1938 . From then on he alternated performances with hospital visits, until he died in June 1939.

After his death, Ella Fitzgerald, to the band of Webb in the waning days of swing, over. ==Date of birth[ Edit] == Just like Louis Armstrong, Nat King Cole and Coleman Hawkins is Chick Webb not only entered the history books as an influential musician, but also with inaccuracies concerning his birth date. Despite the fact that many sources mention his birth year as 1909, there are also indications that this would not be correct.

The New York Times wrote an article about Webb in 1939 in which it was alleged that he was born in 1907. Writer and filmmaker Eric b. Borgman claims, however, that anyone there wrong. He claims to have evidence that Webb in 1905 on the world came.

Also the death certificate of Webb offers no clear outcome. This gives 1909 as 1907, approving the annual year is doorgekrast. On the other hand, gives the book Rhythm on Record -that's written by Hilton Schleman when Webb was still alive-1907 to again.

To date, the exact birth date of Webb not yet obsolete. For this article the data of Borgman used, without contradicting the possible correctness of other allegations.