[1] He played and/or recorded in bands with Flip Phillips, Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington, Coleman Hawkins, Nat Pierce, Sidney Bechet, Billie Holiday, Jaki Byard, Earl Hines, Jimmy Witherspoon, Clark Terry and Miles Davis.

[1] His father, also named Jimmy Woode, was a music teacher and pianist who had played with Hot Lips Page.

An original member of The Kenny Clarke-Francy Boland Big Band,[2] in 1995 he also toured with Lionel Hampton's Golden Men of Jazz.

[4] Woode was born on the same day, the same month, the same year as saxophonist John Coltrane (September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967).

With (groups led by) Don Byas, Albert Nicholas, Bud Powell, Idrees Sulieman With Kenny Clarke With Ted Curson With Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis and Johnny Griffin With Nathan Davis With Eric Dolphy With Duke Ellington With Art Farmer With Erich Kleinschuster (Sextett) With Paul Gonsalves With Johnny Griffin With Jim Hall With Johnny Hodges With John Lewis and Svend Asmussen With Mark Murphy With Mythologie With Sahib Shihab With Sunbirds With Clark Terry With Mal Waldron