Referred to as “legendary” by many jazz musicians, including Andrew Hill,[2] very little is known about Day except for a few specific dates when he played with Tom Archia and his All Stars, with Gail Brockman, Andrew "Goon" Gardner or John "Flaps" Dungee, Gene Ammons, Claude McLin (possibly), Junior Mance, George Freeman and Jo Jo Adams, a line-up that recorded at the Pershing Ballroom, Chicago in early 1948,[3] and with Fats Navarro, LeRoy Jackson, Clarence "Sleepy" Anderson, Gene Ammons and Tom Archia at Leonard Chess's club, the Macomba Lounge, in 1948, where both Kenny Dorham and Max Roach went to see him,[3] as did, according to Duke Groner, Buddy Rich and Louie Bellson.
[5] In April 1944, he was in a band led by Jesse Miller performing at Joe's Deluxe Club, with Albert Atkinson (sax), Kermit Scott (tenor sax), Argonne Thornton (piano), Walter Buchanan (bass).
[10] Johnny Griffin recalls that Buddy Rich hired Day to join his big band and that Slim Gaillard took him to New York in the late 1940s, where he played at Minton's.
[11] and refers to Day playing as a duo with Wilbur Ware, double bassist Richard Davis recalls jamming with Ware and Day[12] and Ahmad Jamal mentions having played with him at the Palm Tavern.
[1] Ike Day was admired by many other drummers, including Tommy Hunter (Sun Ra Arkestra),[16] Roy Haynes[17] and Vernel Fournier,[8][18] and, according to Wilbur Campbell, both Max Roach and Art Blakey had expressed their admiration for Day,[19] as did Joe Segal in his liner notes to Johnny Griffin's debut solo album on Blue Note, Introducing Johnny Griffin.