Rhythm Man: Chick Webb and the Beat that Changed America (published by Oxford University Press on April 25, 2023), is the first comprehensive biography of a majorly influential drummer and musical innovator.
One of the founding figures of Jazz’s Swing Era, and a successful bandleader at the Savoy Ballroom during the Harlem Renaissance into the Great Depression, Chick Webb (1905-39) set the beat for decades of jazz history, even after his early death at the age of 34, but his story has largely been ignored.
In her interview with ‘Hardluck’ Jim/The Weekend Blues, jazz historian—and biographer of Gil Evans and Duke Ellington—Stephanie Stein Crease uncovers how Webb’s virtuosity, creativity, and persistence left an indelible impact on American culture.
