Speed Webb

Webb first began playing on violin and mellophone before switching to drums. By 1923 he was performing locally around Peru, Indiana, and in 1925 co-founded the Hoosier Melody Lads, a cooperative band. In 1926 the band, led by Webb, had a recording session with Gennett Records (of Richmond, Indiana), although no discs were issued. Later that year the band moved to California, where it had residencies at various clubs and from 1928-29 appeared in several films, including Sins of the Fathers (1928),{{cite web |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0019391/fullcredits?ref_=tt_cl_sm#cast |title=Full cast and crew for Sins of the Fathers (1928) |publisher=IMDb |accessdate=13 May 2013}} Riley the Cop (1928) and His Captive Woman (1929).{{cite encyclopedia | encyclopedia=The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz | editor-first=Barry | editor-last=Kernfeld | editor-link=Barry Kernfeld | title=Films: I,2: Jazz scenes within feature films | first=Ernie | last=Smith | page=[https://archive.org/details/newgrovedictiona00kernf/page/376 376] | edition=Single vol. 1st | year=1994 | publisher=The Macmillan Press | location=London | isbn=0-312-11357-9 | url=https://archive.org/details/newgrovedictiona00kernf/page/376 }} After 1929 Webb led a number of bands (see below), mostly as conductor but also at times as drummer and singer, up until 1938 when he retired from full-time performance.

Different lineups of Speed Webb and His Melody Lads,[https://books.google.com/books?id=5WGbmb4iwRAC&dq=speed+webb+jazz&pg=PA500 Dje Dje, Jacqueline Cogdell and Meadows, Eddie S. (1998) California Soul: Music of African Americans in the West, p. 500. University of California Press] at Google Books. Retrieved 2 May 2013. Speed Webb and His Hollywood Blue Devils[https://books.google.com/books?id=P7Op0NwIwA0C&q=speed+webb&pg=PA187 Hochstat Greenberg, Janice Leslie (2010) Jazz Books in the 1990s: An Annotated Bibliography, p. 25. Scarecrow Press] at Google Books. Retrieved 2 May 2013. and, between 1925 and 1938,Schuller, Gunther (1989) [https://books.google.com/books?id=Zc4Lh9KC2MIC&q=speed+webb&pg=PA450 The Swing Era : The Development of Jazz, 1930-1945, p. 781. Oxford University Press] at Google Books. Retrieved 2 May 2013. Speed Webb and His Hoosier Melody Lads, included Art Tatum,Feather, Leonard and Gitler, Ira (1999) [https://books.google.com/books?id=ma1BpsFE1WoC&q=speed+webb&pg=PA563 The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz, p. 637. Oxford University Press] at Google Books. Retrieved 2 May 2013. Henderson Chambers,[https://books.google.com/books?id=I5wrGL-a-Q8C&q=speed+webb&pg=PR3-IA135 The Rough Guide to Jazz, p. 138. Rough Guides, 2004] at Google Books. Retrieved 2 May 2013. Teddy Buckner,[https://books.google.com/books?id=I5wrGL-a-Q8C&q=speed+webb&pg=PR3-IA135 The Rough Guide to Jazz, p. 111. Rough Guides, 2004] at Google Books. Retrieved 2 May 2013. Vic Dickenson, Teddy Wilson and his brother Gus Wilson, Roy Eldridge and his brother Joe Eldridge, Eli Robinson, Reunald Jones,Wilson, Teddy and Ligthart, Arie (2001) [https://books.google.com/books?id=9t2Ak-km4zwC&q=speed+webb&pg=PA84-IA3 Teddy Wilson Talks Jazz, p. 10. Continuum International Publishing Group] at Google Books. Retrieved 2 May 2013. Melvin Bowles, William Warfield, Samuel Scott, Chick Wallace, Leonard Gray, Steve Dunn,Wilson, Teddy and Ligthart, Arie (2001) [https://books.google.com/books?id=9t2Ak-km4zwC&q=speed+webb&pg=PA84-IA3 Teddy Wilson Talks Jazz, p. 84. Continuum International Publishing Group] at Google Books. Retrieved 2 May 2013. with Sy Oliver doing arrangements.

There appear to be no extant recordings of Speedy Webb and his orchestras. No discs were issued from the Gennet recording session of 1926, and the soundtracks of the movies he and his band appeared in seem to have been recorded by the various studio orchestras.

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• {{IMDb name|0915998}}

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Category:1906 births

Category:1994 deaths

Category:Drummers from Indiana

Category:American jazz drummers

Category:American jazz bandleaders

Category:20th-century American drummers

Category:American male drummers

Category:20th-century American male musicians

Category:American male jazz musicians