Theodore Shaw "Teddy" Wilson (November 24, 1912–July 31, 1986) was a jazz pianist from the United States born in Austin, Texas. His sophisticated and elegant style graced the records of many of the biggest names in jazz, including Louis Armstrong, Lena Horne, Benny Goodman, Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald.
Wilson studied piano and violin at Tuskegee Institute. After working in the Lawrence "Speed" Webb and Louis Armstrong bands, he joined Benny Carter's Chocolate Dandies in 1933. In 1935 he joined the Benny Goodman Trio (which consisted of Goodman, Wilson and drummer Gene Krupa, later expanded to the Benny Goodman Quartet with the addition of Lionel Hampton). The trio performed during the big band's intermissions. By joining the trio, Wilson became the first black musician to perform in public with a previously all-white jazz group.
The noted jazz writer and producer John Hammond was instrumental in getting Wilson a contract with Brunswick, starting in 1935, to record hot swing arrangements of the popular songs of the day, with the growing jukebox trade in mind. He recorded fifty hit records with various singers such as Lena Horne and Helen Ward, including many of Billie Holiday's greatest successes. During these years he also took part in many highly regarded sessions with a wide range of important swing musicians, such as Lester Young, Roy Eldridge, Charlie Shavers, Red Norvo, Buck Clayton and Ben Webster.
Wilson formed his own short-lived big band in 1939, then led a sextet at Cafe Society from 1940 to 1944. He was known to many as the "Marxist Mozart." In the 1950s he taught at the Juilliard School. Wilson can be seen appearing as himself in the motion picture The Benny Goodman Story (1955).
Wilson lived quietly in suburban Hillsdale, NJ in the 1960s and 1970s. He performed as a soloist, and with pick-up groups until the final years of his life. Teddy Wilson died on July 31, 1986.
Select discography
Teddy Wilson Featuring Billie Holiday (1949)
I Got Rhythm (1956)
Pres and Teddy (1956)
With Billie in Mind (1972)
Teddy Wilson Trio Revisits the Goodman Years (1980)
References
^ Denning, Michael: The Cultural Front: The Laboring of American Culture in the Twentieth Century (New York: Verso, 1996), 317.
Yanow, Scott (2000). Swing. Miller Freeman Books. ISBN 0-87930-600-9.
This article about a United States jazz musician is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
NewPP limit report
Preprocessor node count: 690/1000000
Post-expand include size: 3614/2048000 bytes
Template argument size: 1221/2048000 bytes
Expensive parser function count: 0/500
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teddy_Wilson"
Categories: 1912 births | 1986 deaths | Swing pianists | Mainstream jazz pianists | African American musicians | American jazz pianists | Tuskegee University alumni | Juilliard School faculty | United States jazz musician stubs
Views
Article
Discussion
Edit this page
History
Personal tools
Log in / create account
if (window.isMSIE55) fixalpha();
Navigation
Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Search
Interaction
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact Wikipedia
Donate to Wikipedia
Help
Toolbox
What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Printable version Permanent linkCite this page
Languages
Deutsch
Español
Français
Nederlands
Norsk (bokmål)
Svenska
This page was last modified on 2 August 2008, at 17:50.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details.) Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a U.S. registered 501(c)(3) tax-deductible nonprofit charity.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
if (window.runOnloadHook) runOnloadHook();
