Warren Dodds (1898 - 1959)
Warren "Baby" Dodds was one of first great drummers of Jazz and
the brother of Johnny Dodds. Baby got his start playing in
parades in New Orleans, occasionly with Bunk Johnson. He
played briefly with his brother in Kid Ory's Band, but was
embrassed when all the musicians walked off stage because
of his poor playing. This incident spurred him on to become
a better musican. He played in several other bands in New
Orleans before joining Fate Marable's riverboat band in
1918. While working on the riverboat he played with Louis
Armstrong, Johnny St. Cyr, Pops Foster, among others. He
stayed in Marable's band until King Oliver asked him to
join his band in San Francisco in 1921. Dodds followed
Oliver to Chicago and was the drumer in King Oliver's
Creole Jazz Band. After the breakup of that band Dodds worked with Honore Dutrey
at the Dreamland in Chicago and with several other bands in the city. From 1927 to
1929 Baby Dodds played in his brothers' band at Kelly's Stables along with Freddie
Keppard. He was the drummer on many of the classic Chicago Jazz recordings of
Jelly Roll Morton's Red Hot Peppers and Louis Armstrong's Hot Seven. Throughout
the Depression, Baby played in many of the small groups lead by his brother Johnny
Dodds and helped run a taxi cab company in Chicago. When his brother died in 1940,
he went on to play with Jimmy Noone, and with Bunk Johnson. After 1949 Dodds had
a series of strokes that left him partially paralized, but still managed to play from time
to time up until his death.
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