Carl "Kansas" Fields
b. Carl Donnell Fields, 5 December 1915, Chapman, Kansas, USA. As a young teenager Fields moved to Chicago where, a few years later, he began playing drums at various clubs. Among the musicians for whom he worked during the '30s were Jimmie Noone and Horace Henderson. In 1940 he joined Roy Eldridge and then flitted through the bands of Benny Carter, Charlie Barnet, Mel Powell and others, until war service interrupted his career. After the war he was with Cab Calloway, Sidney Bechet, Eldridge again, and also ventured into modern waters with Dizzy Gillespie. Fields was, however, a mainstream drummer and was at his best in such surroundings. In the '50s and early '60s he spent much of his time in Europe working and recording with Mezz Mezzrow, Lionel Hampton and Buck Clayton. He continued working into the '80s.