Donald Bailey (musician)

Donald " Duck" Orlando Bailey ( born March 26, 1934 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, † October 15, 2013 ) was an American jazz drummer.

Bailey was self-taught and became known as the drummer of the organist Jimmy Smith, with whom he worked 1955-1964 and grossed several albums on Blue Note. Until the mid- 1970s, he worked in Los Angeles, after five years ( until 1982 ) in Japan, where he played with a trio with whom he recorded an album as a leader; here he also played the harmonica. In 1999 he released his album Voyage. After his return to the U.S. he lived in Oakland.

Since the 1950s, Bailey was a sought-after sideman. He played a recording, inter alia, with George Braith, Harold Land, Sonny Rollins, Hampton Hawes, George Benson, Sarah Vaughan and Carmen McRae.