[2] Drootin was born near Kyiv, Ukraine, and moved to Boston, Massachusetts, United States,[3] with his family when he was five.
During these years he worked with Doc Cheatham, Vic Dickenson, Bobby Hackett,[3] Ruby Braff,[3] Claude Hopkins, Jimmy McPartland,[1] Pee Wee Russell, and Arvell Shaw.
Drootin recorded with Tommy Dorsey, Bobby Hackett, Jack Teagarden, Eddie Condon, Ruby Braff, Anita O'Day, George Wein, the Newport All-Stars, Lee Konitz, Sidney Bechet, PeeWee Russell and The Dukes of Dixieland.
In 1968–69, he toured and recorded with Wild Bill Davison's Jazz Giants and then formed Buzzy's Jazz Family, borrowing some of Davison's sidemen (Herb Hall, Benny Morton) and adding Herman Autrey on trumpet and his nephew, Sonny Drootin, on piano.
[citation needed] Buzzy Drootin died from cancer at the age of 80,[1] at the Actors Fund Retirement and Nursing Home in Englewood, New Jersey.