Dottie Dodgion dies at 90.
Famous jazz drummer I never heard of. She didn't like to do solos! Have you ever heard of a drummer who didn't? Well.
She hardly ever did solos,
and when she did, her solo approach "came from being a singer.I'd hear the melody inside my head, so the rhythms I laid down always followed the song form of whatever tune I played."
Kidnapped by her drummer father at the age of 5--he had left the family when she was 2-- she toured strip joints and roadhouses with him and his band 'til she was 7.
Her mother had remarried and her step father raped her. He went to jail for 20 years.
She spent her weekends with her dad at Streeets of Paris, a strip clup in San Francicco.
Gradually her singing gave way to drumming, and she worked with such greats as Charles Mingus, and Nick Esposito. Marriages and breakups ensued.
Benny Goodman hired her and her third husband, she thoughit was just to jam. But he put her on stage. For ten nights she played with him, then he forgot to mention her name when he listed the band. The audience roared in protest,, and asked her name. After the long standing ovation they gave her, Benny Goodman's manager whispered, "Bye," in her ear on her way out.
She was fired for getting more applause than her boss.
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