Jimmy Woode
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Jimmy Woode (born Philadelphia 23 September 1926 (or 1927) - died Lindenwold, New Jersey 23 April 2005) was a jazz bassist. His father, also named Jimmy Woode, was a music teacher and pianist who played with Hot Lips Page. Woode studied piano and bass in Boston at Boston University and at the Conservatory of Music, as well as at the Philadelphia Academy.
He played and/or recorded in bands with Flip Phillips, Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, Nat Pierce, Sidney Bechet, Billie Holiday, Jaki Byard, Earl Hines, Jimmy Witherspoon and Miles Davis.
He joined the Duke Ellington Orchestra in 1955, appearing on many of Ellington's recordings, including Such Sweet Thunder and Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Duke Ellington Songbook, both from 1957, as well as the historic 1956 Newport Jazz Festival session. He stayed with the Orchestra until 1960, when he left to live in Europe.
An original member of The Kenny Clarke-Francy Boland Big Band, in 1995 he also toured with Lionel Hampton's Golden Men of Jazz.
He died in April 2005 of a heart attack at age 78.
