The Last Grooves

Abstract

Abstract In 1938 though spring of 1939, Webb’s band was on the road almost constantly, on one-nighters through the South and Midwest. In New York in August 1938, Webb’s band debuted at the Paramount Theater, a breakthrough engagement even for top Black bands. “Chick Webb and His Famous Orchestra, Featuring Ella Fitzgerald” was lit up on the theater’s huge marquis in Times Square. By this time, Webb and saxophonist/vocalist Louis Jordan did not get along, and Jordan left in early summer. Mario Bauza left after demanding more money for himself and the sidemen, knowing that Moe Gale’s agency was taking a good percentage of the band’s box office earnings. Webb was admitted to Johns Hopkins Hospital a few times for rest and treatment, with Dr. Ralph J. Young still his personal physician. Meanwhile, Webb and his band kept breaking through the “color line” at prestigious venues, including a long engagement at Manhattan’s Park Central Hotel. In March 1939, they were back at the Paramount, and attended the groundbreaking ceremony for the Savoy Pavilion for the 1939 World’s Fair. In April and May, the band went back and forth to Boston to play at the Southland Cafe, where the band’s radio broadcasts show how powerfully Webb still played, even as his health was failing. In New York City in late May 1939, the band gave what would be their last performances at the Savoy Ballroom and the Apollo Theater.