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Thread: Baby Dodds

  1. #1

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    Default Baby Dodds

    Warren "Baby" Dodds (December 24, 1898 – February 14, 1959) was a jazz drummer born in New Orleans, Louisiana. He is considered one of the best jazz drummers of the pre-big band era.

    He made his first drum by "I took a lard can and put holes in the bottom and turned it over and took nails and put holes around the top of it. Then I took some rounds out of my mother's chairs and made drumsticks out of them". He saved up enough money to buy his own drum set when he was 16.

    He played street parades around New Orleans. Then he started playng in Willie Hightower's band, "the American Stars" and played with other bands lead by Frankie Duson and Sonny Celestin. He also was part of the tradition of playing funeral marches, but the music according to Dodds didn't shoe any respect for the dead. Dodds and others wanted people to be happy, so they changed the music to a more lively style.

    He became a top drummer in New Orleans and played with "Fate Marable's River Boat Band". Louis Armstrong also joined the band and the two of them were on different boats together. They both left the band because of their dislike of the bands style. Dodds then joined "King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band", and they all moved to California.

    Later Dodds recorded with Loui Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, Art Hodes. Dodds also played in Loui Armstrong's "Hot Five" and "Hot Seven" groups. He played and recorded with many other people.

    He is considered the first dummer to record solos when the technology reached a level that would allow the instrument to be heard. He played something different in evey chorus of evey tune which was different from the other drummers of the day. He was most well know for his "shmmy beat" which he first use in 1918.

    He was also inducted into the "Downbeat Hall of Fame".

    The is Baby Dodds playing at Town Hall in 1947.


  2. #2

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    Default Re: Baby Dodds

    Here are some Baby Dodds drum improvisations.


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