Eddie Dougherty

On one of his very first visits to the United States in 1935, the young jazz critic Leonard Feather made special mention of drummerEddie Dougherty, at that point only 18 years old but already employed in a club managed by trombonist Dicky Wells. This wasn't the drummer's first professional job by any stretch either. That had already happened a few years back courtesy of bandleader Billy Gussak, taking an inspirational interest in a lad who had begun banging on the drums almost immediately upon becoming a teenager. When Dougherty finally retired from fulltime music decades later he had amassed a list of credits that not only rivals the length of some short stories but represent a thorough involvement in many different styles of jazz, vocal music and rhythm and blues. Dougherty seems to have made his last recordings in 1970 but remained active on a part-time freelance basis even after that date.

His career began in New York City; the band Feather noticed him in was Kenny Watts and His Kilowatts, with whom he gigged regularly up through 1940. There was apparently plenty of time for recording sessions during the day, the drummer showing up behind marvelous singers such as Mildred Bailey and Billie Holiday, swinging hornmen Harry James on trumpet and Taft Jordan on alto saxophone and a series of brilliant pianists. When drumming with keyboard artists, his playing was just as eloquent behind ragtime and stride masters James P. Johnson and Pete Johnson as it was in the context of the more modernistic Mary Lou Williams or the flamboyant Art Tatum. Through the '40s he hauled his drums to many a gig, playing with Benny Carter in 1941, Benny Morton for two years beginning in 1944 and later pianist Teddy Wilson and tenor saxophonist Skinny Brown. He was also a frequently dispatched as a substitute for other drummers and was even considered tough enough to replace Dave Tough.

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