Jazz Drummer, Hit Composer Ray Bauduc, 81

Jazz drummer Ray Bauduc, co-composer of two of the tunes for which he is best known, “Big Noise From Winnetka” and “South Rampart Street Parade,” has died in a suburb of Houston, it was learned Wednesday.

He was 81 and had lived in Bellaire since 1966 after spending most of the earlier 50 years on the road.

The son of a New Orleans musician, Bauduc played in silent movie houses when he was only 13 and joined an early Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey group called the Wild Canaries before going to Bob Crosby’s Bobcats in his best known affiliation.

There, with bassist Bob Haggart, he wrote “Big Noise” and “South Rampart.” Their recording of “Big Noise,” a duet for bass and drums in which Bauduc played drumsticks on Haggart’s bass strings, sold in the millions.

He later led his own band and recorded and worked for Jimmy Dorsey and Jack Teagarden until 1955 when he and guitarist Nappy Lamare formed their own group.

Bauduc, who died Friday, played with an elite Army band that toured various bases during World War II.