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Arguably the first important jazz drummer,
Baby Dodds was one of the earliest to vary his patterns during a performance; a strong example of his adventurous style can be heard on a trio performance (with
Jelly Roll Morton and
Baby's brother
Johnny) of "Wolverine Blues" in 1927. A major influence on
Gene Krupa,
Dodds worked in New Orleans with Willie Hightower,
Bunk Johnson,
Oscar Celestin, and others and played with Fate Marable's riverboat band in 1918. He joined
King Oliver in San Francisco in 1922 and settled in Chicago the following year. In addition to recording with
Oliver's classic
Creole Jazz Band,
Dodds was an important part of sessions led by
Jelly Roll Morton and
Louis Armstrong's
Hot Seven. He remained in Chicago for decades, performing and recording regularly with his brother,
Johnny Dodds, until the clarinetist's death in 1940. During the traditional jazz revival,
Baby played with
Jimmie Noone,
Sidney Bechet,
Bunk Johnson, and
Art Hodes, appeared on the This Is Jazz radio broadcasts of 1947, and visited Europe with
Mezz Mezzrow the following year. During 1945-1946, he recorded the first unaccompanied drum solos. Despite ill health in the 1950s,
Baby Dodds kept playing until two years before his death; his memoirs are well worth reading. ~ Scott Yanow