Louie was born as Luigi Paulino Alfredo Francesco Antonio Balassoni on July 6, 1924, in Rock Falls, IL, near Chicago.

Louie Bellson had expressed himself on drums since age three. At fifteen, he pioneered the double bass drum set-up. Two years later, he triumphed over 40,000 drummers to win the Gene Krupa-Slingerland drumming contest.

Louie Bellson has performed on more than 200 albums with such greats as Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Benny Goodman, Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, Oscar Peterson, Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Armstrong, Lionel Hampton, and James Brown, among many others.

Composer and author, he wrote over 1,000 compositions and more than a dozen books on drums and percussion. He received the prestigious American Jazz Masters Award from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1994. Also, he was a six-time Grammy nominee.

In 1998, Louie Bellson was hailed (along with Roy Haynes, Elvin Jones and Max Roach) as one of four “Living Legends of Music” when he received the American Drummers Achievement Award from the Zildjian Company.

Mr. Bellson held four honorary doctorates, the latest from DePaul University in 2001.

In 2003, a historical land-marker was dedicated at his July 6, 1924 birth house in Rock Falls, Illinois, thus inaugurating their annual 3-day celebration in his honor.

The 2006 cd release of \'The Sacred Music of Louie Bellson and the Jazz Ballet\', his magnum opus, amply showcased his mastery and breadth as both composer and performer.

In March 2007, Louie Bellson received the Living Jazz Legends Award from the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC. In June 2007, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers inducted Bellson as a Living Legend in the ASCAP Jazz Wall of Fame ceremony, Jazz at the Lincoln Center, New York City.

His last cd, \'Louie & Clark Expedition 2\', a big band collaboration with trumpeter Clark Terry, was released in early 2008.

Last month Louie Bellson was transferred to a Rehabilitation Facility in LA where he resumed a rigorous regimen of physical therapy, recovering from a hip-breaking fall in November 2008.

Louie Bellson is survived by his second wife, Francine, who helped guide her husband\'s career since their marriage in 1991, and the two adopted children he had with his first wife Pearl Bailey: a daughter, Dee Dee, and a son, Tony.

Rest in peace, Maestro.