[Dixielandjazz] Chick Webb documentary

[Robert Ringwald]

Chick Webb: He Was 'King' When Swing Was the Thing
by Greg Thomas
New York Daily News, September 30, 2012
When documentarian Jeff Kaufman set out to produce a film on swing era drummer Chick
Webb six years ago, he had no idea the wealth of findings he would come across.
"Up until the very end," Kaufman says, "Chick grew in stature for me with every discovery
as I went along."
Kaufman knew that Webb, a short man who walked with a hunched back, had brought Ella
Fitzgerald to national fame with the hit "A Tisket A Tasket" in 1938. But another
event inspired Kaufman to take this journey, during which more than 1,000 images
were licensed for use in the documentary.
Kaufman read about a famous 1937 battle of the bands between Benny Goodman and Webb
at the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem. It was said that Webb's orchestra "wiped the floor"
with Goodman's band. Mind you, Goodman's band was then the most famous in the land.
Kaufman says Gene Krupa, Goodman's drummer, even bowed to Webb's group to pay homage.
"I said, 'Wow,'" Kaufman says. "There seemed to be so little information out there.
I just had to find out more."
The result of this labor of love, "The Savoy King: Chick Webb and the Music That
Changed America," will be screened Tuesday as part of the 50th annual New York Film
Festival.
"The Savoy King" is an American adventure story about a man whose indomitable talent
combined with an iron will. Webb's achievements came despite huge physical and social
obstacles.
Born in 1905, William Henry "Chick" Webb grew up in East Baltimore in a single-parent
home. Although afflicted early on with spinal tuberculosis, which severely restricted
his growth, his mother Marie would not allow the phrase "I can't" to come out of
his mouth.
A family member says in the film that kids used to call Webb a "chicken" because
of the way he walked; the nickname was shortened to "Chick." Family lore also recalls
that a doctor recommended that Webb play the drums to strengthen his upper body.
Webb earned money from a paper route and bought his first drum set at age 11. He
moved to New York in the mid-1920s, and by 1927 Duke Ellington had hired him to lead
a radio band.
In 1931, he began performing with a big band at the Savoy Ballroom. By the time he
hired a young Ella Fitzgerald in 1935, his band was housed there. When it came to
band competitions, Webb took on all comers, including the Count Basie Orchestra with
Billie Holiday. (Webb's band reportedly won.)
The film relates the story of the Savoy Ballroom, where the promise of American fraternity
-- without regard to race, class or gender -- was realized in spite of legally-enforced
Jim Crow segregation. The owner, Moe Gales, ran the club through a black manager,
Charles Buchanan. On the dance floor, whites and blacks sashayed the Lindy Hop to
stomp the blues.
"The significance of the Savoy Ballroom cannot be overstated," Kaufman says. "In
the film, Savoy dancer Norma Miller says that 'we fought a war with music and dance
and that opened doors.' The first door was opened at the Savoy, where blacks and
whites could socialize together and dance together. That drove city officials crazy,
but it has huge importance."
Kaufman is based in Los Angeles, so he teamed up with the Harlem-based cultural impresario
Voza Rivers and filmmaker Jamal Joseph. Their New Heritage Theater Group served as
a fiscal conduit and co-executive producers of the film.
Rivers says his high school prom was held at the Savoy Ballroom. He used "to stand
outside gawking at the celebrities and finely dressed people going into the Savoy."
Rivers' personal connection to the famous space and to Harlem -- along with his feeling
for Kaufman's intrepid dedication -- convinced him to join the project.
"It became a cross-country relationship," Rivers recalls. "I started identifying
people who visited the Savoy Ballroom and could remember that experience." Rivers
contacted living legends, like Dr. Muriel Petioni of Harlem Hospital, John Isaacs
of the Harlem Rens basketball team and Gertrude Jeannette, founder of the H.A.D.L.E.Y.
Players, a famous theatrical troupe.
Other jazz masters appearing in the movie: Roy Haynes, Louis Bellson and Joe Wilder,
composer-arranger Van Alexander and swing dance legend Frankie Manning. Kaufman also
solicited stars -- including Bill Cosby, Janet Jackson, Andy Garcia and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
-- to serve as the voices of various historical figures (see sidebar).
"I had no idea what a rich life Chick had," Kaufman says. "He was the first bandleader
to have a national radio show. Mario Bauza, Dizzy Gillespie and Louis Jordan all
came through his band. He influenced great drummers like Buddy Rich and others. He
played at fundraisers for the Scottsboro Boys, and supported efforts to desegregate
the military in the 1930s.
"Every discovery made a wonderful impression."
___________________________________
"The Savoy King" features the voices of:
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as Dizzy Gillespie
New Orleans musician Bruce "Sunpie" Barnes as Barney Bigard
Rocky Carroll as narrator
Bill Cosby as Chick Webb
Billy Crystal as Mezz Mezzrow
Tyne Daly as jazz publicist Helen Oakley Dance
Keith David as the Savoy Ballroom's manager, Charles Buchanan
Andy Garcia as Mario Bauza
Danny Glover as Count Basie
Jeff Goldblum as Artie Shaw
Janet Jackson as Ella Fitzgerald
John Legend as Duke Ellington
Ron Perlman as Gene Krupa
Voza Rivers as Sandy Williams
Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson as Teddy McRae
Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts as jazz journalist Stanley Dance
___________________________________
"The Savoy King: Chick Webb and the Music That Changed America Tuesday," Oct. 2.
Free panel discussion, 12 noon-2 p.m., Schomburg Center, 515 Lenox Ave. (on 135th
St.). Film screening, 3:30 p.m., Elinor Bunin Monroe Film Center, 144 W. 65th St.
For ticket info, go to
http://www.filmlinc.com
-30


-Bob Ringwald
www.ringwald.com
Amateur (ham) Radio Operator K6YBV
916/ 806-9551

Women will never be equal to men until they can walk down the street 
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