Chick Webb and Ella Fitzgerald

Both had difficult beginnings.

Chick Webb was born around 1909. Early on, he contracted tuberculosis which effected his spine. It hampered his growth and caused his back to be badly deformed. He learned percussion as a child playing on the kitchen floor with his mother’s pots and pans.

Ella Fitzgerald was born in 1917. She suffered a pitiable and abusive childhood. At fifteen, she ended up in reform school, but later escaped, entered an amateur night contest, and won.

Chick formed a band and became known as The King of Swing. He and his musicians got so good that the dancers at the Savoy Ballroom in New York City voted The Chick Webb Band better than the Benny Goodman and Count Basie Orchestras.

When the band needed a vocalist, Chick took a chance on a seventeen year old girl he’d heard sing—Ella. They toured the country from 1935 to 1938, stopping occasionally in Kansas City’s jazz district. Some lucky Kansas Citians got to hear Ella sing the now famous A Tisket, A-Tasket which she helped write to cheer the then ailing Chick Webb.

Chick died in 1939 from tuberculosis. Ella led his band for the next few years before she moved on with her illustrious career.