Nick Fatool: The Perfect Jazz Percussionist

The great jazz pianist Jess Stacy told his biographer, Keith Keller: “Nick Fatool was always 100 per cent of what a good drummer should be.” Drummers, other instrumentalists and jazz fans around the world agree without hesitation. Albert “Nick” Fatool was born in Milbury, Massachusetts, in 1915. After his family moved to Rhode Island, he played drums in the local high school. Just a few years later he was living in New York City and playing with the much-admired Joe Haymes Orchestra. A residency in Dallas with the Don Bestor Orchestra followed, then Fatool went straight to the top—joining the Benny Goodman Orchestra in 1939. His driving but always musical hi-hats, backbeats, and brushes were integral to the orchestra’s rhythmic pulse at the second Carnegie Hall concert, the second Spirituals to Swing concert and on numerous “Camel Caravan” broadcasts. In 1939, guitarist Charlie Christian joined the Goodman orchestra. Fatool’s swinging rhythm was an integral part of the rhythm section that backed Christian on the classic recordings of “Rose Room,” “Seven Come Eleven,” and other sides. In 1940, after an acrimonious parting with Goodman, Fatool moved on to another top orchestra: Artie Shaw’s. There, he blended seamlessly with Shaw’s rhythm section