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Nick Fatool was born on Jan. 2, 1915 in Milbury, Massachusetts and studied drums as a youth. He first played professionally in Providence, Rhode Island, followed with time in Joe Haymes’s band in 1937 and then Don Beston’s in Dallas soon after. By 1939 he was playing briefly with Bobby Hackett, and then took a chair with the Benny Goodman Orchestra.

Becoming one of the most visible drummers of the 1940s, Nick played with several bands led by Artie Shaw, Alvino Rey, Claude Thornhill, Les Brown and Jan Savitt. In 1943 he moved to Los Angeles, California and recorded profusely as a session musician. The short list of his credits includes Harry James, Errol Garner, Louis Armstrong, Jess Stacy, Tommy Dorsey, Matty Matlock, Glen Gray, Bob Crosby and the Crosby Bobcats.

From1944 to 1958 Fatool played on sessions for Capitol Records as a sideman for Johnny Mercer, Betty Hutton, Jo Stafford, Peggy Lee, Billy May, Nat “King” Cole, Wingy Manone, Dean Martin, Gordon MacRae, Red Nichols, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Ray Anthony, Jack Teagarden, The Andrews Sisters, Frank Sinatra, Andy Griffith, and Robert Mitchum to name a few during this period.

In the 1950s and 1960s Nick found much work on the Dixieland jazz revival circuit, playing with Pete Fountain from 1962-1965 and the Dukes of Dixieland. His only session as a bandleader was as the head of a septet in 1987, “Nick Fatool’s Jazz Band & Quartet” leading Eddie Miller, Johnny Mince, Ernie Carson and others. Drummer Nick Fatool passed away on September 26, 2000 in Los Angeles, California. He was 85.

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