The battle at the Savoy, 1938

In early 1938 the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem, the room for lindy-hoppers, set Basie’s band against Chick Webb’s in a battle of the bands. Basie had Billie Holiday; Webb had Ella Fitzgerald.

What the paper said

Metronome ran the headline “Basie’s Brilliant Band Conquers Chick’s”, and described a night in which Webb attacked and the Count, “playing along easily”, answered with runs and arpeggios.

What it did for the band

The publicity before and after gave the band its wider name. The photograph above is from a few years later: Basie with Bob Crosby at the Howard Theatre in Washington, by William P. Gottlieb.