Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular Music

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CATLETT, Sidney 'Big Sid'

(b 17 Jan. '10, Evansville IN; d 24 March '51, Chicago) Ace big-band drummer, some said the best of all, with Benny Carter, McKinney's Cotton Pickers, Jeter/Pillars, Fletcher Henderson, Don Redman, Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, others; also small groups, i.e. Commodore sessions: Chu Berry and his 'Little Jazz' Ensemble '38. Coleman Hawkins and the Chocolate Dandies '40, Hawkins and Leonard Feather's All-Stars '43 (Esquire magazine poll winners). Precise time and good taste made him a superior accompanist for soloists; he was so successful with Goodman '41 that Goodman fired him. Led own big band briefly '46; at Armstrong's historic Town Hall concert '47; freelanced with Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Ventura. One of the Swing Era veterans who was making the transition to modern jazz, he died suddenly in the wings at a theatre gig.