Drummer; Died February 14, 2009.

Louie Bellson, who has died aged 84 of complications from Parkinson's disease following a broken hip, was an Illinois-born drummer who performed with such greats as Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Benny Goodman and Oscar Peterson.

His career spanned more than six decades, performing on more than 200 albums with jazz greats including Tommy Dorsey, Harry James, Woody Herman, Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Armstrong and his late wife, Pearl Bailey.

Bellson wrote more than 1000 compositions and arrangements in several genres, including jazz, swing, orchestral suites, symphonic works and ballets.

As an author, he published more than a dozen books on drums and percussion. Bellson's talent showed at the young age of 15, when he pioneered the double bass drum set-up, and two years later he went on to win the Slingerland National Gene Krupa drumming contest.