Teddy Bunn

Theodore Leroy "Teddy" Bunn (born May 7, 1910 in Freeport , Long Island , New York , † July 20, 1978 in Lancaster , California ) was an American jazz guitarist of swing and rhythm and blues .

Life

Bunn came from a musical family and started out as the accompanist to a calypso singer. He made recordings in September 1929 with the Duke Ellington Orchestra and with Red Allen and Walter "Fats" Pichon. He was in demand as a session musician for recordings. In the early 1930s he took a. a. with singer Spencer Williams , blues singer Victoria Spivey and pianists Clarence Profit and Jelly Roll Morton . From 1929 to 1931 he played with the "Washboard Serenaders" (including recording of Teddys Blues 1930) and from 1932 with the Spirits of Rhythm , with whom he also recorded from 1932 to 1937 and 1939 to 1941. The Spirits of Rhythm were a band of percussion, string instruments such as guitar, bass (at times Wellman Braud ), a mandolin-like instrument called "Tiple", sometimes harmonica and often "Scat" singing vocalists (especially Leo Watson ) who played in the The 1930s and 1940s were quite successful at 52nd Street clubs (especially the Onyx Club) in New York and Hollywood. He took (especially from 1938 to 1940) a. a. with Sidney Bechet , Mezz Mezzrow and Tommy Ladnier (in his last recordings in 1938), Hot Lips Page (Bluebird 1940), John Kirby , Jimmy Noone (1937), Johnny Dodds (1938) and Trixie Smith , and in 1939 a solo record for Blue Note Records .

Bunn was one of the first Blue Note artists with Sidney Bechet, Frankie Newton and JC Higginbotham (as the "Port of Harlem Jazzmen"). In the 1940s he had his own groups such as the 1944 "Waves of Rhythm" (and the reissued "Spirits of Rhythm") and switched to the electric guitar, first in 1940 in California as a member of Lionel Hampton's band . In 1946 he recorded with Joe Turner . In the 1950s he was primarily in rock-and-roll and rhythm-and-blue bands such as Edgar Hayes (as in the 1940s) and Louis Jordan (1959). His health deteriorated in the 1960s (heart problems), and after several strokes in 1970 he was partially paralyzed and blind. He last lived in San Fernando, California.

collection

The Pete Johnson / Earl Hines / Teddy Bunn Blue Note Sessions (1939-1940) . Mosaic , 1987 - 1 LP with Teddy Bunn g & voc

literature

Carlo Bohländer , Karl Heinz Holler, Christian Pfarr: Reclam's Jazz Guide . 3rd, revised and expanded edition. Reclam, Stuttgart 1989, ISBN 3-15-010355-X .

Web links

Works by and about Teddy Bunn in the catalog of the German National Library
Scott Yanow: biography.
Biography ( memento from January 18, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) on Billboard

Remarks

↑ This is what they called themselves when Bunn joined them, before that they had different names: The Sepia Nephews, Ben Bernie's Nephews, The Five Cousins
↑ In 1934 they accompanied the singing Red McKenzie
↑ The recordings were made on March 28, 1940 ( King Porter Stomp , Bachelor Blues, Blues Without Words (2 takes), Guitar In High ). They first appeared as Teddy Bunn - King Porter Stomp c / w Bachelor Blues (Blue Note 503), later as a reissue on Mosaic Records as The Pete Johnson / Earl Hines / Teddy Bunn Blue Note Sessions (Mosaic MR1-119)

personal data
SURNAME	Bunn, teddy
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Bunn, Theodore Leroy
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American jazz guitarist
DATE OF BIRTH	May 7, 1910
PLACE OF BIRTH	Freeport (New York)
DATE OF DEATH	July 20, 1978
Place of death	Lancaster (California)

[1] This is what they called themselves when Bunn joined them, before that they had different names: The Sepia Nephews, Ben Bernie's Nephews, The Five Cousins

[2] In 1934 they accompanied the singing Red McKenzie

[3] The recordings were made on March 28, 1940 ( King Porter Stomp , Bachelor Blues, Blues Without Words (2 takes), Guitar In High ). They first appeared as Teddy Bunn - King Porter Stomp c / w Bachelor Blues (Blue Note 503), later as a reissue on Mosaic Records as The Pete Johnson / Earl Hines / Teddy Bunn Blue Note Sessions (Mosaic MR1-119)