Drummer Nick Fatool was born in Millbury, Massachusetts on January 2, 1915. He was one of the more popular drummers of the 1940s playing with many of the name big bands of the swing era and later became a prolific studio musician in Los Angeles.

Fatool first played professionally in the mid-1930s in New England before catching on with the Joe Haymes band. By 1937 Fatool was touring with Don Beston’s Texas-based territory band. Then he played for a bit with cornetist Bobby Hackett. He got his big break, however, in 1939 when Benny Goodman hired him as the drummer for his orchestra, filling the chair that had previously been occupied by Gene Krupa.  After leaving Goodman, Fatool played with Artie Shaw, Alvino Rey, Claude Thornhill, Jan Savitt and Les Brown during the 1940s.

Nick Fatool moved to Los Angeles in 1943 and began doing work as a studio musician, particularly at the newly founded Capitol Records starting in 1944. He recorded with a plethora of famous names including Billy May, Johnny Mercer, Frank Sinatra, Jack Teagarden, Dean Martin, Nat King Cole, Red Nichols and Ray Anthony. In addition, he performed with Harry James, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Eddie Condon, Joe Venuti, Bing Crosby, Lionel Hampton, Charlie Christian and Hoagy Carmichael. Beginning in 1949 he played regularly with Bob Crosby and his Bobcats and became associated with the traditional jazz revival in the 1950s and 1960s playing with Pete Fountain and the Dukes of Dixieland.

Although he only recorded once as a leader (in 1987), Nick Fatool was active as a drummer into the 1990s. He passed away in 2000 at the age of 85.

Here is a link to Nick Fatool playing in 1986 with a group led by bassist Bob Haggart in Cork, Ireland:

"BIG NOISE FROM WINNETKA"