George Wettling

Oliver's drummer, Baby Dodds, made a particular and lasting impression on Wettling. • Illustration — Ernie Caceres, Bobby Hackett, Freddie Ohms, and George Wettling, Nick's, NYC, 1940s. Photography by William P. Gottlieb Wettling went on to work with the big bands of Artie Shaw, Bunny Berigan, Red Norvo, Paul Whiteman, and Chico Marx, but he was at his best with bands led by Eddie Condon, Muggsy Spanier, and himself. In these small bands, Wettling demonstrated the arts of dynamics and responding to a particular soloist that he had learned from Baby Dodds. Wettling was a member of some of Condon's bands, which included Wild Bill Davison, Billy Butterfield, Edmond Hall, Peanuts Hucko, Pee Wee Russell, Cutty Cutshall, Gene Schroeder, Ralph Sutton, and Walter Page. In 1957, he toured England with a Condon band that included Davison, Cutshall, and Schroeder. He died of a heart attack in New York City. Toward the end of his life, Wettling, like his friend clarinetist Pee Wee Russell, took up painting and was influenced by the American cubist Stuart Davis. He has been said to have believed that "jazz drumming and abstract painting seemed different for him only from the point of view of craftsmanship: in both fields he felt rhythm to be decisive".

• Name — George Wettling • Birth Name — George Godfrey Wettling • Born — 28 November 1907 • Birthplace — Topeka, Kansas, U.S. • Origin — Chicago, Illinois, U.S. • Died — 6 June 1968 • Place of death — New York City, U.S. • Genre — Jazz, swing, Dixieland • Occupation — Musician • Instrument — Drums • Years Active — 1920s–1950s