Industry Reviews
"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
"Essential... Crease's book is an expertly narrated story of Webb's life, detailing his career within the Black music world of the 1920's and 30s, presenting a nuanced, rounded portrait of the master drummer." -- Vinnie Sperrazza, Chronicles
"Rhythm Man is a surprisingly comprehensive book on Chick Webb that will hopefully restore his important place in history." -- Scott Yanow, LA Jazz Scene
"Nothing comes close to the easy yet majestic sweep of this book....Page after page of Rhythm Man blossoms with new stories." -- Michael Steinman, Jazz Lives
"Thanks to Stephanie Stein Crease's new biography of virtuoso drummer Chick Webb, the Baltimore-born band leader and popular music legend, we now have a detailed and nuanced picture of his amazing life." -- Jacques Kelly, The Baltimore Sun
"Stephanie Stein Crease, author of a previous biography of another elusive but crucial figure in jazz history, the arranger and bandleader Gil Evans, has finally given us a much-needed cradle-to-grave narrative of this most essential of all jazz drummers." -- Will Friedwald, The New York Sun
"A sympathetic, extensively researched biography of an often-neglected swing-era pioneer that jazz fans will find compelling." -- Dr. Dave Szatmary, Library Journal
"The jazz biography of the year! A clear, fast-paced tracking of the rise of virtuoso drummer and bandleader William "Chick" Webb, Crease mobilizes exciting new archival research to reveal the rich cultural history of Black Baltimore and of Harlem itselfDLwhen jazz was in vogue up and down the streets of Upper Manhattan and then all over the globe...This critical biography dives deep, offering surprise after surprise. Crease offers fresh vignettes of Webb's
fellow jazz-star Baltimoreans Blanche and Cab Calloway, Eubie Blake, and Billie Holiday. And we learn how a physically challenged man, hump-backed and standing four feet tall, could drive an all-star
orchestra from his brightly lit drumkit throne, make a city-block size ballroom bounce under thousands of dancers' feet, and still play his role as the family man who supported relatives and friends..." -- Robert G. O'Meally, author of Antagonistic Cooperation: Jazz, Collage, Fiction, and the Shaping of African American Culture
"Like Andrew Delbanco's work on Melville, Stephanie Stein Crease's Rhythm Man is sweeping, probing cultural history not to be mistaken for mere biography. Missing nothing worth knowing, Crease explores the whole world around the drummer and bandleader Chick WebbDLthe world that made him and the world he remade with his still dazzling, still under-appreciated musical art." -- David Hajdu, author of Lush Life: A Biography of Billy Strayhorn and
Love for Sale: Pop Music in America
"Chick Webb is arguably the greatest of big band drummers because he was an incredible technician, orchestrator, and bandleader; he created the template for what came after him. However, there is so little written about him in totality, and the passion and love that Stephanie Crease pours into this book will allow it to become the missing link to understanding the magnitude of Chick's contribution to the world of jazz big band drumming and beyond. Thanks to
this book, we get to understand how and why Chick Webb was one of the greatest to ever play a drum set in the configuration of a big band, which is foundational to the creation of jazz music." -- Ulysses
Owens Jr., Grammy Award-winning jazz drummer, educator, creative entrepreneur
"Though he was one of the true kings of the Swing Era, drummer and bandleader Chick Webb has never properly received his due. That wrong has definitively been righted thanks to the groundbreaking research uncovered in Stephanie Crease's Rhythm Man. In addition to being a world-class researcher, Crease is an expert storyteller with the uncanny ability to make worlds come alive, smartly relying on the words of those who were there to help tell the story.
In the process, readers will be transported from the streets of Baltimore to the battles at the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem and all places in between, all in incredible detail like no previous telling of Webb's
story. This is a major work and exactly what Webb deserves." -- Ricky Riccardi, Director of Research Collections at the Louis Armstrong House Museum and Grammy Award-winning author of Heart Full of Rhythm: The Big Band Years of Louis Armstrong
"Fiction couldn't have created a better hero than Chick Webb, and Stephanie Crease is the writer to tell the tale. A Black artist with a disability, in constant pain, Webb let nothing stop his momentumDLthe modernization of jazz drumming. Deeply researched and lovingly told, Crease places Webb at the center of American popular culture of the Swing Era. A fascinating read." -- Linda Dahl, author of Morning Glory: A biography of Mary Lou Williams and
An Upside-Down Sky
"Jazz, above all, is about rhythm, and in this unique biography, Stephanie Crease has taken the time and pulse of Chick Webb's short but impactful life and made it swing. She is to biographers what Webb was to drummersDLa shining light!" -- Loren Schoenberg, Senior Scholar and Founding Director of the National Jazz Museum in Harlem
"Get into the literary swing with the little-remembered titan of the '30s- Chick Webb, one of the first jazz drum virtuosos. This nationally famous Harlem bandleader held sway at the Savoy Ballroom and helped launch Ella Fitzgerald and the Swing era. And he packed a lot of living into the 34 years of his short life! Author Stephanie Crease has penned his first full biography with previously unpublished material that sheds new light on the early jazz and dance
scene in Baltimore (his birthplace) and NYC." -- New York City Jazz Record
"Crease provides a rich, dynamic look at Webb's lived experiences and the channels through which his musical and cultural influence have permeated numerous dimensions of American culture. Rhythm Man offers an accessible, page-turning story of Webb's life and numerous listening suggestions, so it will also interest fans of more conventional jazz biographies. This broad appeal makes Rhythm Man a particularly welcome addition to the mosaic of
discourses that make up jazz history." -- Jayson Davis, Journal of Jazz Studies
