Benjamin "Buzzy" Drootin (April 22, 1920 – May 21, 2000) was an American

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

drummer.

Career

Drootin was born near

Kyiv Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

, Ukraine, and moved to

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

, United States, with his family when he was five. His father played the clarinet, and two of his brothers and his nephew were musicians. He began playing drums professionally as a teenager. At age twenty, he toured with the Jess Stacy All-Stars, a band that included Lee Wiley. In 1940, he also toured with Ina Ray Hutton. He then joined the band of Wingy Manone. From 1947 until 1951, he worked as the house drummer at Eddie Condon's night club in New York City. He was a bandleader at El Morocco club in New York City, and a member of the house band with his brother Al at George Wein's Storyville club in Boston. During these years he worked with Doc Cheatham,

Vic Dickenson Victor Dickenson (August 6, 1906 – November 16, 1984) was an American jazz trombonist. His career began in the 1920s and continued through musical partnerships with Count Basie (1940–41), Sidney Bechet (1941), and Earl Hines. Life and car ...

Bobby Hackett Robert Leo Hackett (January 31, 1915 – June 7, 1976) was a versatile American jazz musician who played swing music, Dixieland jazz and mood music, now called easy listening, on trumpet, cornet, and guitar. He played Swing with the bands ...

Ruby Braff Reuben "Ruby" Braff (March 16, 1927 – February 9, 2003) was an American jazz trumpeter and cornetist. Jack Teagarden was once asked about him on the Garry Moore television show and described Ruby as "the Ivy League Louis Armstrong". Bra ...

Claude Hopkins Claude Driskett Hopkins (August 24, 1903 – February 19, 1984) was an American jazz stride pianist and bandleader. Biography Claude Hopkins was born in Alexandria, Virginia, United States. Historians differ in respect of the actual date of his ...

, Jimmy McPartland, Pee Wee Russell, and Arvell Shaw. Drootin recorded with

Tommy Dorsey Thomas Francis Dorsey Jr. (November 19, 1905 – November 26, 1956) was an American jazz trombone, trombonist, composer, conductor and bandleader of the big band era. He was known as the "Sentimental Gentleman of Swing" because of his smooth-to ...

, Bobby Hackett,

Jack Teagarden Weldon Leo "Jack" Teagarden (August 20, 1905 – January 15, 1964) was an United States, American jazz Trombone, trombonist and singer. He led both of his bands himself and was a sideman for Paul Whiteman's orchestra. From 1946 to 1951, he played ...

, Eddie Condon, Ruby Braff,

Anita O'Day Anita Belle Colton (October 18, 1919 – November 23, 2006), known professionally as Anita O'Day, was an American jazz singer and self-proclaimed “song stylist” widely admired for her sense of rhythm and dynamics, and her early big band appe ...

George Wein George Wein (October 3, 1925 – September 13, 2021) was an American jazz promoter, pianist, and producer.

, the Newport All-Stars,

Lee Konitz Leon "Lee" Konitz (October 13, 1927 – April 15, 2020) was an American jazz Alto saxophone, alto saxophonist and composer. He performed successfully in a wide range of jazz styles, including bebop, cool jazz, and avant-garde jazz. Konitz's ass ...

Sidney Bechet Sidney Joseph Bechet ( ; May 14, 1897 – May 14, 1959) was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, and composer. He was one of the first important Solo (music), soloists in jazz, and first recorded several months before trumpeter Louis Ar ...

, PeeWee Russell and The Dukes of Dixieland. In 1968–69, he toured and recorded with Wild Bill Davison's Jazz Giants and then formed Buzzy's Jazz Family, borrowing some of Davison's sidemen ( Herb Hall, Benny Morton) and adding Herman Autrey on trumpet and his nephew, Sonny Drootin, on piano. In 1973, after touring Europe and America, he returned to his hometown of Boston, where he and his brother Al and nephew Sonny formed the Drootin Brothers Band. They played at the

Newport Jazz Festival The Newport Jazz Festival is an annual American multi-day jazz music festival held every summer in Newport, Rhode Island. Elaine Lorillard established the festival in 1954, and she and husband Louis Lorillard financed it for many years. They hire ...

. Drootin played at the first Newport festival and at many festivals after that. He also played at the Los Angeles Classic Jazz Festival in the 1980s.

Death

Buzzy Drootin died from cancer at the age of 80, at the Actors Fund Retirement and Nursing Home in

Englewood, New Jersey Englewood is a city in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Englewood was incorporated as a city by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 17, 1899, from portions of Ridgefield Township and the remaining portions of Engle ...

Discography

With

* ''Braff!!'' (Epic, 1956) * ''Ruby Braff'' (Jasmine, 1956) * ''Hi-Fi Salute to Bunny'' (RCA Victor, 1957) * '' The Ruby Braff Octet with Pee Wee Russell & Bobby Henderson at Newport'' (Verve, 1958) * ''Blowing Around the World'' (United Artists, 1959) * ''Ruby Braff Goes Girl Crazy'' (Warner Bros., 1959) * ''The Ruby Braff-Marshall Brown Sextet'' (United Artists, 1960) With Eddie Condon * ''Midnight in Moscow'' (Epic, 1956) * ''Ringside at Condon's Featuring Wild Bill Davison'' (Savoy, 1956) * ''Windy City Seven and Jam Sessions at Commodore'' (Commodore, 1979) With others *

, ''Sidney Bechet at Storyville'' (Storyville, 1974) * Serge Chaloff, ''The Fable of Mabel'' (1201 Music, 1999) * Wild Bill Davison, Buzzy Drootin, Herb Hall, ''The Jazz Giants'' (Biograph, 1970) * Wild Bill Davison, ''Wild Bill Davison with Eddie Condon's All Stars'' (Storyville, 1977) *

, ''Vic's Boston Story'' (Storyville, 1957) * Dukes of Dixieland & Clara Ward, ''We Gotta Shout!'' (CBS, 1963) *

, ''Bobby Hackett at the Embers'' (Capitol, 1958) * Bobby Hackett &

, ''Jazz Ultimate'' (Capitol, 1958) * Herb Hall, ''Old Tyme Modern'' (Biograph, 1969) * Max Kaminsky & Pee Wee Russell, ''Max and Pee Wee at the Copley Terrace'' (Jazzology, 1996) * Tony Parenti, ''The Final Bar'' (Jazzology, 1999) * Pee Wee Russell, ''We're in the Money'' (Storyville, 1956) * Ralph Sutton, ''Ragtime U.S.A.'' (Roulette, 1962) *

George Wein George Wein (October 3, 1925 – September 13, 2021) was an American jazz promoter, pianist, and producer.

's Dixie-Victors, ''The Magic Horn'' (RCA Victor, 1956) * George Wein's Newport Jazz Festival All Stars, ''George Wein's Newport Jazz Festival All Stars'' (Smash, 1963)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Drootin, Buzzy 1920 births 2000 deaths American jazz drummers Soviet emigrants to the United States 20th-century American drummers American male drummers 20th-century American male musicians American male jazz musicians Drummers from Boston Deaths from cancer in New Jersey