Chick Webb (February 10, 1905 – June 16, 1939)

William Henry Webb, usually known as Chick Webb was an American jazz and swing music drummer as well as a band leader. In 1927, at the beginning of his career, he recorded a solitary unissued title for Vocalion. It was possibily a pickup group consisting of 7 musicians. In 1931, his band recorded 3 sides for Vocalion/Brunswick. In December 1933, he signed with Columbia and 14 sides were recorded through 1934, the last 4 appeared on Columbia's OKeh label. In September 1934 he signed with the new Decca label and through the remainder of his life recorded prolifically for Decca, many of his records were best sellers. Webb died on June 16, 1939, in Baltimore. Reportedly his last words were "I'm sorry, I've got to go." He was just 34 years old.Webb was buried just outside Baltimore, in Arbutus Memorial Park, in Arbutus, Maryland. Webb's death hit the jazz/swing community very hard. After his death, Ella Fitzgerald led the Chick Webb band, until she left to focus on her solo career in 1942.

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Big Band vocalist RAY EBERLE

Raymond "Ray" Eberle (born January 19, 1919, Hoosick Falls, New York — died August 25, 1979, Douglasville, Georgia) was a vocalist during the Big Band Era. Eberle sang with the Glenn Miller Orchestra.

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Gene Krupa (January 15, 1909 – October 16, 1973) American jazz and big band drummer and composer

Eugene Bertram Krupa was born in Chicago, the youngest of Anna (Osłowski) and Bartlomiej Krupa's nine children. Bartlomiej was an immigrant from Poland, and Anna was born in Shamokin, Pennsylvania.
He studied with Sanford A. Moeller and began playing professionally in the mid 1920s with bands in Wisconsin. He broke into the Chicago scene in 1927, when he was picked by MCA to become a member of "Thelma Terry and Her Playboys," the first notable American Jazz band (outside of all-girl bands) to be led by a female musician. The Playboys were the house band at The Golden Pumpkin nightclub in Chicago and also toured extensively throughout the eastern and central United States. Krupa made his first recordings in 1927, with a band under the leadership of banjoist Eddie Condon and Red McKenzie: along with other recordings beginning in 1924 by musicians known in the "Chicago" scene such as Bix Beiderbecke, these sides are examples of "Chicago Style" jazz. The numbers recorded at that session were: "China Boy", "Sugar", "Nobody's Sweetheart" and "Liza". The McKenzie - Condon sides are also notable for being some of the early examples of the use of a full drum kit on recordings. Eddie Condon describes what happened in the Okeh Records studio on that day (in 'We Called It Music' - pub: Peter Davis, 1948...
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Xavier Cugat (1 January 1900 – 27 October 1990)

Xavier Cugat (Catalan pronunciation: [ʃəβiˈe kuˈɣat]) (1 January 1900 – 27 October 1990) was a Spanish-American bandleader who spent his formative years in Havana, Cuba. A trained violinist and arranger, he was a key personality in the spread of Latin music in United States popular music. He was also a cartoonist and a successful businessman[citation needed]. In New York, his was the resident orchestra at the Waldorf-Astoria before and after World War II. Cugat was born as Francisco d'Asís Xavier Cugat Mingall de Bru i Deulofeu in Girona, Catalonia (Spain).[1] His family emigrated to Cuba when Xavier was five. He was trained as a classical violinist and played with the Orchestra of the Teatro Nacional in Havana. On 6 July 1915, Cugat and his family arrived in New York as immigrant passengers on board the S.S. Havana.

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Melvin "Sy" Oliver (December 17, 1910 in Battle Creek, Michigan – May 28, 1988 in New York City) was a jazz arranger, trumpeter, composer, singer and bandleader.

Oliver left home at 17 to play with Zack Whyte and his Chocolate Beau Brummels and later with Alphonse Trent. He sang and played trumpet with these bands, becoming known for his "growling" horn playing. Sy arranged and conducted many songs for Ella Fitzgerald from her Decca years.
As a composer, one of his most famous songs was T'ain't What You Do (It's the Way That You Do It) which he co-wrote with Trummy Young. He joined Jimmie Lunceford's band in 1933 and contributed many hit arrangements to the band, including "My Blue Heaven" and "Ain't She Sweet". In 1939 he joined Tommy Dorsey as an arranger, though he ceased playing trumpet at that time. (Fletcher Henderson joined the Benny Goodman orchestra as the arranger in the same year.) He led the transition of the Dorsey band from Dixieland to modern big band.

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Glenn Miller death / crash...

On December 15th in 1944, as World War II raged, news spread of the loss of an airplane somewhere over the English Channel between England and Paris. On board the ill-fated aircraft was Major Glenn Miller, who had been on his way to lead his Air Force Band in a Christmas concert. Alton Glenn Miller (March 1, 1904 – missing in action December 15, 1944) was an American jazz musician (trombone), arranger, composer, and bandleader in the swing era. He was one of the best-selling recording artists from 1939 to 1943, leading one of the best known "Big Bands". Miller's notable recordings include "In the Mood", "Moonlight Serenade", "Pennsylvania 6-5000", "Chattanooga Choo Choo", "A String of Pearls", "At Last", "(I've Got a Gal In) Kalamazoo", "American Patrol", "Tuxedo Junction", and "Little Brown Jug". While he was traveling to entertain U.S. troops in France during World War II, Glenn Miller disappeared in bad weather over the English Channel. The Glenn Miller Orchestra was reformed after the war and continues to record and perform to this day. Details of death/crash | Wikipedia | SHOP: Glenn Miller