Movie: The Savoy King: Chick Web

The full title of the movie is "The Savoy King: Chuck Webb & the Music that Changed America".  I saw this documentary at the Honolulu African-American Film Festival at the Doris Duke Theatre.  The reason for the title is The Savory nightclub in Harlem was reportedly the first to allow both Black and White people to dance at the same time in front of a live band.   Places like the Cotton Club were segregated.  Chick Webb's band was the house band.   Today, Chick Webb is probably best known for giving Ella Fitzgerald her original platform to perform on a regular basis.  In fact, Webb, a drummer, was quite influential and his band was equal to any jazz band performing in the 1930s, including Duke Ellington.   As for the movie, it was a delight.  If you are a jazz fan, this film is a must see.   The film intersperses photos from the 1920's and 30's with conversations of artists who played at the time and although in their 90s, are still energized by the music they produced.   Reminiscences are spoken by well known actors such as Danny Glover (Count Basie), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Dizzy Gilespie), Jeff Goldblum (Artie Shaw) and Bill Cosby, who speaks the words of Chick Webb.   This marvelous film was put together by Jeff Kaufman, who was present to discuss his movie.  He was asked how was he able to afford such well known people and we learned they did it for union scale and most of them never knew Kaufman prior to his asking to participate.  The running time on the movie is 90 minutes.   It appears to be showing at film festivals and not available for general release.   If you get the opportunity to see this film, do so.