Chick Webb & His Orchestra - Stomping at the Savoy [Box Set]

Released in 1996, Proper Box 97 contains 99 sides recorded under the leadership of master drummer Chick Webb beginning with the session of March 30, 1931 and ending with a recording made live at the Southland Cafe in Boston on May 4, 1939, a little over a month before he succumbed to spinal tuberculosis at the tender age of 30 (his last words being: "I'm sorry -- I gotta go!"). While this is an excellent, mostly thorough and chronologically presented history of Webb's brief reign as one of the nation's top swing band leaders, it fails to include two wonderful titles from 1929 ("Dog Bottom" and "Jungle Mama") that act as a tidy prelude to the rest of his works and have managed to make it onto other worthwhile Webb retrospectives. Read More