Fields played in Chicago from the late 1920s, and worked with King Kolax and Jimmie Noone in the 1930s.
[2] He briefly led his own ensemble and played with Ella Fitzgerald and Benny Carter before joining the Marines during World War II.
[2] After the war, he played with Cab Calloway, Claude Hopkins, Sidney Bechet, Dizzy Gillespie (recording with Gillespie in 1951), and Eldridge again before the close of the decade.
[2] He led another group of his own early in the 1950s, then played with Mezz Mezzrow in Europe in 1953.
[2] Fields stayed in Europe for more than a decade; he relocated to France and worked as a sideman.