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An overview of
Teddy Bunn's recording activities during the 1930s reveals a skilled guitarist working shoulder to shoulder with many of the top jazz musicians of his generation, invariably bringing out the best in every participant, for as he himself frankly explained: "I have a very good ear and can usually sense what the cats are going to play a split second before they do it." Born in Freeport, Long Island, in 1909,
Theodore Leroy "Teddy" Bunn grew up in a multi-instrumental family and gained his first professional experience accompanying a calypso singer.
Bunn's recording debut took place on September 16, 1929. On that day he made records with Walter "Fats" Pichon and
Henry "Red" Allen as well as
Duke Ellington's
Cotton Club Orchestra. A few weeks later
Bunn recorded with the Six Jolly Jesters, a hybrid hokum ensemble combining some of
Ellington's men with a kazooist and a washboard player.
Bunn's adventures as a session guitarist during the first months of the Great Depression brought him into contact with Harlem stride piano legends
Fats Waller and
James P. Johnson, New Orleans cornetist
King Oliver, multi-instrumentalist
Adrian Rollini, and blues singer
Lizzie Miles. During the year 1930 he cut records with
the Washboard Serenaders (including his feature "Teddy's Blues"); with vocalist and songwriter
Spencer Williams and pianist
Clarence Profit; with vaudeville clarinetist
Wilton Crawley and pianist
Jelly Roll Morton; with blues queen
Victoria Spivey; and with
the Alabama Washboard Stompers. In May and June of 1931 he made a series of records with
the Washboard Rhythm Kings, a lively and entertaining ensemble that benefited greatly from his presence. Up to this point,
Bunn was mainly a Victor recording artist who sometimes crossed over to Vocalion. Beginning in 1933 he recorded mainly for Decca, most famously as a cardinal member of
the Spirits of Rhythm, initially known as
Ben Bernie's
Sepia Nephews.
Leo "Scat" Watson was the main attraction in this little harmony vocal and string band; he found his perfect counterpart in
Teddy Bunn.
In 1934
the Spirits backed vocalist
Red McKenzie, former leader of the Mound City Blue Blowers.
Bunn also recorded with two archetypal New Orleans clarinetists, first with
Jimmie Noone in 1937, then in January 1938 with Johnny Dodds & His Chicago Boys.
Bunn's working itinerary for the rest of 1938 included sessions with Decca's designated
Fats Waller impersonator
Bob Howard; with electric organist Milt Herth; with boogie-woogie pioneer
Cow Cow Davenport (who only sang while
Sammy Price manned the piano); with Chicago blues singer Jimmie Gordon & His Vip Vop Band; and with vocalists
Ollie Shepard, Johnnie Temple,
Trixie Smith, and
Leola B. Wilson, professionally known as Coot Grant. This last assignment brought him into the combined orbits of reedmen
Sidney Bechet and
Mezz Mezzrow, who by the end of 1938 would involve him directly in the final recordings of trumpeter
Tommy Ladnier, including a session with
James P. Johnson & His Hep Cats backing vocalist Rosetta Crawford. In March, April, and June 1939,
Teddy Bunn was among the very first musicians ever to record for the Blue Note record label, first as a soloist, then as a member of the Port of Harlem Jazzmen and various offshoots of that ensemble fronted by trumpeter
Frankie Newton, trombonist
J.C. Higginbotham, and soprano saxophonist
Sidney Bechet.
Bunn recorded with a group calling itself the Ramblers and featuring electric organist Bob Hamilton, backed blues singer
Georgia White, then moved to the West Coast and switched to electric guitar in 1940 for his debut as a member of the
Lionel Hampton band.
Some of
Teddy Bunn's most memorable moments on record occurred with the Hot Lips Page Trio at a Bluebird session in December 1940. Here he showed his best stuff both as a gutsy accompanist (on the lurid "My Fightin' Gal") and as an inspired improviser (on the instrumental "Do It If You Wanna").
Bunn joined a reunited
Spirits of Rhythm to back vocalist
Ella Logan in 1941, led his own groups in California including the Waves of Rhythm in 1944, and sat in with Kansas City blues shouter
Joe Turner in 1946. He worked with bandleader
Edgar Hayes, gigged in Hawaii with tenor saxophonist
Jack McVea, and collaborated with pianist
Hadda Brooks. By the late '50s he was touring with a rock & roll road show and in 1959 he appeared with
Louis Jordan's updated jump band. Deteriorating health curtailed his activity during the 1960s. After suffering several heart attacks and a stroke in 1970 that left him partially blind and crippled,
Teddy Bunn settled in San Fernando, CA, and passed away at a hospital in Lancaster on July 20, 1978. ~ arwulf arwulf