Tommy Benford; Jazz Drummer Worked With Waller, Morton

Tommy Benford, 88, jazz drummer who backed such legends as Fats Waller and Jelly Roll Morton. A native of Charleston, W. Va., Benford started playing in an orphanage band and for six decades wandered the world performing in a long list of jazz bands. His work included some of Morton’s greatest recordings, including “Kansas City Stomp” and “Shreveport.” Benford spent the 1930s touring Europe, working with band leader Sy Devereaux, violinist Eddie South, guitarist Django Reinhardt, saxophonist Coleman Hawkins, trumpeter Bill Coleman and singer Joe Turner. Returning to the United States in the 1940s but touring Europe periodically, Benford worked with band leaders Snub Mosley, Noble Sissie, Bob Wilber and Jimmy Archey. For the past several decades, Benford worked with the Harlem Blues and Jazz Band and with Bob Greene’s World of Jelly Roll Morton. On Thursday in Mount Vernon, N.Y.