Teddy Hill
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Photograph by William P. Gottlieb .
Theodore "Teddy" Hill (born December 7, 1909 Birmingham , Alabama , † May 19, 1978 in Cleveland , Ohio ) was an American tenor saxophonist , big band leader of swing and jazz club manager. He ran the band where Dizzy Gillespie made his first recordings and was the manager of Minton's Playhouse at the time the bebop was developed there.
Hill started out with the trumpet but quickly switched to the saxophone. In 1927 he played in a band called "Frank Bunch and his Fuzzy Wuzzies". The following year he went to New York , where he joined the band of Luis Russell (initially directed by George Howe ). In 1929 he played on the recording "Mahogany Hall Stomp" in the then band Louis Armstrongs .
In 1932 he founded his own band, with which he played regularly in the Savoy Ballroom . Members were at times Roy Eldridge , Chu Berry , Dicky Wells , Bill Coleman and Kenny Clarke . During his time at Hill, Clarke revolutionized drumming by playing the basic rhythm on the cymbals and snare drum instead of the bass drum . In March 1937, Hill's only hit was "The Love Bug Will Bite You (If You Don't Watch Out)". That year Roy Eldridge left the band when a European tour of England and France was due. Hill found a replacement in Dizzy Gillespie, then twenty; this is first documented as a soloist on Hill's recording of “ King Porter Stomp ” (1937).
In 1940 Hill took over the management of Minton's Playhouse , a jazz club in Harlem . At first he continued to lead his band, which he soon disbanded. He hired his former drummer Clarke, who put together a house band that also included pianist Thelonious Monk . Soon more musicians began to gather on stage for impromptu jam sessions , including Gillespie, Charlie Christian and Charlie Parker . These sessions are considered to be the birth of bebop . Hill ran the Minton's until 1969, but when it, like many jazz clubs, radically changed its musical direction in the late 1960s, he took over a club called the Baron Lounge .
In 1976 he fell ill and decided to move to Cleveland with his daughter. The doctors diagnosed him with colon cancer . Hill died within two years.
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| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Hill, Teddy |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Hill, Theodore |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American tenor saxophonist, big band leader of swing and jazz club manager |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 7, 1909 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Birmingham , Alabama |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 19, 1978 |
| Place of death | Cleveland , Ohio |