Biography
Kansas Fields ranks among the uncommon musicians whose moniker coincides with a geographic designation, even if that place name registers as indistinct and somewhat unremarkable. Born Carl Donnell Fields in Kansas, he first earned recognition on the Chicago jazz circuit during the final years of the 1920s. Throughout the following decade he performed alongside leading Windy City figures such as trumpeter King Kolax and clarinetist Jimmie Noone. Late in 1940 he enlisted with Roy Eldridge and remained for roughly a year, later rejoining that trumpeter’s ensembles toward the decade’s end. When Eldridge dissolved his own unit to enter Gene Krupa’s band in 1941, Fields felt prompted to attempt leadership duties. Although widely respected as a percussionist who collaborated with elite players across his career, those leadership ventures never produced widespread fame. Prior to enlisting in the Marines during the mid-1940s he accompanied vocalist Ella Fitzgerald, saxophonist and bandleader Benny Carter, and additional artists while remaining aligned with swing conventions. After the war he continued along similar lines, circulating through Cab Calloway’s popular orchestra, renewing Kansas City connections via pianist Claude Hopkins, and completing several engagements with saxophonist and clarinetist Sidney Bechet. Before the 1940s closed he explored bebop with Dizzy Gillespie, returned once more to Eldridge, and in the early 1950s led his own Kansas Fields combo at Cafe Society Downtown. European touring began for the drummer in 1953, frequently alongside Mezz Mezzrow. More than ten years of expatriate life followed as Fields settled in France amid sunflower fields and emerged as a favored choice for bandleaders organizing continental engagements. His frequent work with pianists encompassed everything from the ornate improvisations of a somewhat erratic Bud Powell to the unhurried blues idiom of Memphis Slim. Upon returning to Chicago in 1965 he pursued substantial studio work while again tackling Gillespie’s brisk tempos. Recordings with the trumpeter constitute the bulk of Fields’ discography, most of it captured before his repatriation. A 1950s session featuring John Coltrane and Kenny Burrell, along with the Powell dates already mentioned, has undergone repeated reissues. In an unrelated context, Kansas Fields remains the only American jazz musician named in Walt Whitman’s well-known poem “The Leaves of Gras,” albeit without deliberate intent.