Big band drummer LOUIE BELLSON has died in Los Angeles' Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, aged 84.

The star, who shared the stage with greats including Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Benny Goodman and Oscar Peterson, passed away on Saturday (14Feb09) of complications due to Parkinson's disease.

He was previously hospitalised in November (08) with a broken hip.

Bellson performed with jazz legends Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie and Louis Armstrong and worked on more than 200 albums in his career, which spanned more than six decades.

The six-time Grammy Award nominee also received the prestigious American Jazz Masters Award from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1994.

A memorial service is planned for Los Angeles, as well as a funeral and burial in his hometown of Moline, Illinois.