The Savoy Ballroom was the home of the Lindy Hop dancers, and the first venue in America where Blacks and Whites could dance and socialize together. Chick Webb developed childhood spinal tuberculosis and was a hunchbacked dwarf in constant pain, yet he virtually invented modern drumming and built the hottest Swing orchestra of the 1930s - the ‘house band’ of The Savoy Ballroom. Chick was mentored by Duke Ellington, toured with Louis Armstrong, discovered Ella Fitzgerald, beat Benny Goodman (with Gene Krupa) and Count Basie (with Billie Holiday) in battle of the bands, encouraged a struggling Dizzy Gillespie, and helmed the first Black band to host a national radio show . . . all before drumming himself to death at age 30. The screening will be followed by a dance performance and a discussion with Greg Thomas (jazz writer, editor, educator, & broadcast journalist), Bobby Sanabria (Grammy-nominated drummer, percussionist, composer, arranger, documentary film producer), Dan Morgenstern (jazz historian, archivist, author) and others.
New York City, NY; NYC