The first comprehensive biography of Chick Webb (1905-1939), the innovative drummer and bandleader who set the tempo of jazz in the Swing Era and beyond.
Along with Duke Ellington and other top bandleaders of the 1930s, Webb left an indelible impact on American popular music and dance. Rhythm Man traces Webb’s story in full, exploring Webb’s personal and professional struggles, and showing how he helped catalyze big band jazz and rose to national stardom, bringing his extraordinary young vocalist Ella Fitzgerald along with him.
“This propulsive biography places the drummer and bandleader Chick Webb at the epicenter of the early Swing Era." -- The New Yorker
"Rhythm Man captures Webb's spirit and humanity, his musical achievement and significance, as well as providing a portrait of the community of Black musicians in Harlem who developed the most innovative and swinging music of the era."
—Karen Campos McCormack, National Jazz Archive
"Chick Webb now has a first-rate biography-long overdue but effectively filling a gap in jazz scholarship." -- Ted Gioia, The Honest Broker