Kansas Fields

Fields played in Chicago from the late 1920s, and worked with King Kolax and Jimmie Noone in the 1930s. In 1940, he joined Roy Eldridge's group for a year; he returned to play with Eldridge again later in the 1940s. He briefly led his own ensemble and played with Ella Fitzgerald and Benny Carter before joining the Marines during World War II. After the war, he played with Cab Calloway, Claude Hopkins, Sidney Bechet, Dizzy Gillespie (recording with Gillespie in 1951), and Eldridge again before the close of the decade.
He led another group of his own early in the 1950s, then played with Mezz Mezzrow in Europe in 1953. Fields stayed in Europe for more than a decade; he relocated to France and worked as a sideman. In 1965, he returned to Chicago, working once more with Gillespie and doing studio work.