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"Baby" Dodds was the younger brother of clarinetist Johnny Dodds . He is regarded as one of the very best jazz drummers of the pre- Big Band era, and one of the most important early jazz drummers. Dodds was among the first drummers to improvise while performing: varrying his drum patterns with accents and flourishes.

Dodds gained reputation as a top young drummers in New Orleans, then worked on Mississippi River steamship bands with young Louis Armstrong . He moved to California in 1921 to work with Joe "King" Oliver there, and followed Oliver to Chicago, Illinois , which would be his base of operations. He recorded with Louis Armstrong , Jelly Roll Morton , Art Hodes , and his brother Johnny . In the late 1940s he worked at Jimmy Ryan's in New York City . On some of his trips back to New Orleans he recorded with Bunk Johnson . He died in Chicago in 1959 .


FURTHER READING

''The Baby Dodds Story'', a biography by Larry Gara based on extensive interviews with Dodds, first published in 1959.