Sam Woodyard, 63; Big Band Drummer

Sam Woodyard, whom Duke Ellington called the best drummer in his band since Louis Bellson and who was known for his improvisations, died in Paris on Tuesday, friends said.

Woodyard, 63, had lived in Paris for 12 years and was a well-known figure in jazz clubs on the Left Bank. He died after a long battle with cancer that impoverished him.

Born in Elizabeth, N.J., Woodyard was self-taught and began sitting in with local bands in northern New Jersey. He joined Paul Gayten’s rhythm and blues band in 1950, played briefly with Roy Eldridge in 1952 and then with Milt Buckner from 1953 to 1955. He joined Ellington in 1955 and was featured in some of Bellson’s old drum specialties.

Woodyard left Ellington in the early 1960s and settled in New York before going to Europe to live.

“When he plays, he lives a love affair with his drums,” Ellington once said of Woodyard.

The friends who announced his death said he had been hospitalized for cancer treatment three weeks ago. He underwent an operation for a tumor in 1985 and had been living in poverty in the French capital for the last three years.

In 1986, show business figures such as movie director Bernard Tavernier set up the Assn. of Friends of Sam Woodyard in Paris to help the drummer pay his medical bills, and a series of benefit concerts were held at local night clubs.