Cuban Bennett

Theodore "Cuban" Bennett , also Cuba Bennett, (* 1902 in McDonald , Washington County , Pennsylvania , † November 28, 1965 in Pittsburgh ) was an American jazz trumpeter .

Bennett never recorded, but by the 1920s had a reputation for harmoniously advanced trumpet playing ahead of its time, influencing his cousin Benny Carter to begin playing the trumpet. Roy Eldridge judged him: You can call him the first modern. Benny Carter and Dickie Wells judged similarly . He worked in the New York area but was too unsteady to stay with a band any longer (except for some time with Bingie Madison in a New York taxi dance hall) and preferred to move around and experiment. He also drank a lot and one day disappeared from the scene; after Dickie Wells he retired to the inherited farm. According to a newspaper report in 1959, he lived in Camden, New Jersey and Virginia for some time before moving back to his hometown of McDonald.

Danny Barker reports on a visit to the Rhythm Club in New York City in 1930 with his uncle Paul Barbarin , during which they experienced a cutting contest between trumpeters Rex Stewart , Cuba Bennett and Bobby Stark : “Cuba Bennett was the most highly respected trumpet player at that time in New York City. He is a cousin of Benny Carter, and the great band leader boasted with authority that he could play more beautiful and complex solos than anyone in the whole world. When he played, everybody in the street and on the sidewalks rushed in. "

("Cuba Bennet was the most respected trumpeter in New York at the time. He is a cousin of Benny Carter, and the famous bandleader boasted that he played more beautiful and complex solos than anyone else in the world. When he played, everyone pushed out Street and surroundings. ")

Barbarin also noticed that he hardly saw him afterwards because he moved to Camden and started a family there.

Ahmad Jamal recorded the title Sophisticated Gentleman by Bennett in 1959 (Jamal at the Penthouse, Argo 1959).

Tom Lord has no recordings of Bennett.

Lexical entry

Ian Carr , Digby Fairweather , Brian Priestley : Rough Guide Jazz. The ultimate guide to jazz music. 1700 artists and bands from the beginning until today. Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 1999, ISBN 3-476-01584-X .

Web links

Cuban Bennett on Allmusic (English)

Individual evidence

↑ McDonald Record, October 22, 1959 ( Memento of the original from January 4, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2
↑ Quoted from the Jazz Rough Guide. Which with modern musicians musicians of modern jazz like Dizzy Gillespie are meant.
↑ to Stanley Dance
↑ McDonald Record, loc. cit.
^ Jelly Roll Morton in New York, The Jazz Review, May 1959, p. 13
↑ Recorded in Nola's Penthouse Studios, New York, February 1959. The arranger and conductor of the strings was Joe Kennedy, who also came from McDonald and thus probably made contact with Bennett.

personal data
SURNAME	Bennett, Cuban
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Bennett, Theodore
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American jazz trumpeter
DATE OF BIRTH	1902
PLACE OF BIRTH	MC Donald
DATE OF DEATH	November 28, 1965
Place of death	Pittsburgh

[1] McDonald Record, October 22, 1959 ( Memento of the original from January 4, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2

[2] Quoted from the Jazz Rough Guide. Which with modern musicians musicians of modern jazz like Dizzy Gillespie are meant.

[3] to Stanley Dance

[4] McDonald Record, loc. cit.

[5] Jelly Roll Morton in New York, The Jazz Review, May 1959, p. 13

[6] Recorded in Nola's Penthouse Studios, New York, February 1959. The arranger and conductor of the strings was Joe Kennedy, who also came from McDonald and thus probably made contact with Bennett.