One of the most popular pastimes in jazz is debating a musician’s status in the jazz pantheon. There are some about whom there is little disagreement—Armstrong, Ellington, Morton, Waller, etc. For deeper analysis concerning a musician’s contributions, we look to histories that can provide context and insight or, at least, fodder for arguments. There was a 2014 biography Spinnin' the Webb: Chick Webb, The Little Giant, by Chet Falzerano, but it was only 68 pages long and seemed to come and go without a lot of notice. The new biography about Webb by Stephanie Stein Crease has strengths. It digs deeply into Webb’s story and unearths details of his youth in Baltimore and his subsequent career in New York City. It gives a thorough analysis of the Savoy ballroom and its relationship to Harlem and to the jazz world in the 1930s and pays attention to the relationships Webb had with his musicians, many of which were long-term. However, Crease makes a number of claims about the drummer-bandleader, some of which I find plausible and some less so. I suggest that the book’s subtitle:…the Beat That Changed America, is symbolic of some of the hyperbole in which Crease indulges.
Born in 1905, Webb was afflicted with spinal bacterial tuberculosis, which ultimately led to his death at age 34. However, he got a drum set at age 11 and was able to begin gigging not long after. His disease led
