Page 9 - Chick Webb News Today

Today is both Teddy Day and Umbrella Day...

East Baltimore's historic Chick Webb Memorial Recreation Center is poised for a major redevelopment effort worth as much as $20 million. True to its origins, community members are pushing the work along.

East Baltimore's historic Chick Webb Memorial Recreation Center is poised for a major redevelopment effort worth as much as $20 million. True to its origins, community members are pushing the work along.

For over 100 years jazz music has captured the imagination of the public, with jazz bands becoming household names. Here, we name the best jazz band leaders responsible for defining, influencing and shaping the genre into what it is today.

For over 100 years jazz music has captured the imagination of the public, with jazz bands becoming household names. Here, we name the best jazz band leaders responsible for defining, influencing and shaping the genre into what it is today.

His colleagues called Frank Wess “Magic,” an appropriate sobriquet in view of the exceptionally consistent artistry and professionalism he brought to every project with which he was involved throughout a career spanning 70 years. His saxophone approach was lyrical, soulful, swinging and a unique, genre-defying blend of influences including Johnny Hodges, Lester Young, Ben Webster, and Benny Carter, yet informed by bebop harmonies.

Steve Jordan thought he was just a fill-in for Charlie Watts, but then the Rolling Stones drummer died and the gig got serious.

Freddie Green is synonymous with swing guitar. Green enjoyed a 50-year career holding down the rhythm chair of Count Basie’s famed big band.

Swing, in music, both the rhythmic impetus of jazz music and a specific jazz idiom prominent between about 1935 and the mid-1940s, years sometimes called the swing era. Swing music has a compelling momentum that results from musicians’ attacks and accenting in relation to fixed beats.

Ella Fitzgerald made her singing debut at the Harlem Apollo Theater amateur night in New York City in 1934. Her singing caught the attention of Chick We...