He emulated Oliver's freak style on the solo in "Play that Thing" with Ollie Power's Harmony Syncopators in September 1923.

Ladnier joined pianist Sam Wooding in 1925[7] for an extensive tour (Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Spain, and Russia).

[11] He returned to the Sam Wooding Orchestra for another tour[7] (Germany, Austria, Turkey, Switzerland, Italy, and France), then left in January 1929 to work freelance in Paris.

In 1938, Hugues Panassié, a French critic and record producer who met Ladnier in Paris in 1930, visited New York.

Ladnier's last studio recording was on February 1, 1939, in New York as a sideman with singer Rosetta Crawford (de) accompanied by James P. Johnson's Hep Cats (Decca 7584).

With Johnson (1894–1955) on piano, his sidemen were Teddy Bunn (1909–1978) (guitar); Elmer James (1910–1954) (double bass); and Zutty Singleton (1898–1975) (drums).

[12] At age 39, Ladnier, died unexpectedly of a heart attack June 4, 1939, while staying at Mezz Mezzrow's apartment at 1 West 126th Street[13] – a six-story, 48-unit residential building in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan.

Ladnier was buried at Frederick Douglass Memorial Park, Staten Island, an African American cemetery.