Theodore Leroy Bunn (May 7, 1910 – July 20, 1978)
was an American
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...
guitarist who was a member of the
Spirits of Rhythm
Spirits of Rhythm were an American jazz string band.
The ensemble's members had previously played under several other names (The Sepia Nephews, Ben Bernie's Nephews, The Five Cousins), and upon adding Teddy Bunn as guitarist in 1932, the group ...
during the 1930s.
Early life
Bunn was born in
Freeport Freeport, a variant of free port, may refer to:
Places United States
*Freeport, California
*Freeport, Florida
*Freeport, Illinois
*Freeport, Indiana
*Freeport, Iowa
*Freeport, Kansas
*Freeport, Maine, a New England town
**Freeport (CDP), Maine, the ...
, New York.
[Tanner, Peter (October–November 1978) "The Late Teddy Bunn". ''Storyville''. Volume 79.] He had two brothers, Kenneth and Jimmy.
Bunn's father played accordion and harmonica; his mother played organ in a church.
Bunn was given a guitar by his father, who also gave him some basic instruction; apart from this, Bunn was self-taught.
He never learned to read music, so he played by ear.
Career
Bunn was considered one of the best acoustic guitarists of the 1930s.
He appeared on record for the first time in 1929 as a member of a trio with trumpeter
Red Allen
Henry James "Red" Allen, Jr. (January 7, 1908 – April 17, 1967) was an American jazz trumpeter and vocalist whose playing has been claimed by Joachim-Ernst Berendt and others as the first to fully incorporate the innovations of Louis Armstr ...
and pianist
Fats Pichon
Walter Gabriel Pichon (April 3, 1906 – February 25, 1967) professionally known as Fats Pichon, was an American jazz pianist, singer, bandleader, and songwriter.
Biography
Pichon was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, and began playin ...
, then as a guest with the
Duke Ellington Orchestra
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous jazz orchestra from 1923 through the rest of his life. Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Ellington was bas ...
. Soon after, he recorded with the Six Jolly Jesters in the first of many washboard-and-kazoo sessions during his career with bands such as
The Washboard Rhythm Kings and the Washboard Serenaders. During the following year, he participated in a rare session with
Jelly Roll Morton
Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe (later Morton; c. September 20, 1890 – July 10, 1941), known professionally as Jelly Roll Morton, was an American ragtime and jazz pianist, bandleader, and composer. Morton was jazz's first arranger, proving that a gen ...
and clarinetist
Wilton Crawley. He also accompanied vocalists
Victoria Spivey
Victoria Regina Spivey (October 15, 1906 – October 3, 1976), sometimes known as Queen Victoria, was an American blues singer and songwriter. During a recording career that spanned 40 years, from 1926 to the mid-1960s, she worked with Louis A ...
,
Lizzie Miles
Elizabeth Mary Landreaux (March 31, 1895 – March 17, 1963), known by the stage name Lizzie Miles, was an Afro- Creole blues singer in the United States.
Biography
Miles was born in the Faubourg Marigny neighborhood of New Orleans, Louisiana, ...
, and
Spencer Williams
Spencer Williams (October 14, 1889 – July 14, 1965) was an American jazz and popular music composer, pianist, and singer. He is best known for his hit songs " Basin Street Blues", "I Ain't Got Nobody", "Royal Garden Blues", "I've Found a New B ...
. For the rest of the decade, he recorded with the swing band
Spirits of Rhythm
Spirits of Rhythm were an American jazz string band.
The ensemble's members had previously played under several other names (The Sepia Nephews, Ben Bernie's Nephews, The Five Cousins), and upon adding Teddy Bunn as guitarist in 1932, the group ...
led by vocalist
Leo Watson
Leo Watson (February 27, 1898 – May 2, 1950) was an American jazz vocalese singer, drummer, trombonist and tiple player. He was born in Kansas City, Missouri, United States, and is probably best remembered as a member of The Spirits of R ...
.
Bunn recorded with such musicians as
Sidney Bechet
Sidney Bechet (May 14, 1897 – May 14, 1959) was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, and composer. He was one of the first important soloists in jazz, and first recorded several months before trumpeter Louis Armstrong. His erratic temp ...
,
Hadda Brooks
Hadda Brooks (October 29, 1916 – November 21, 2002) was an American pianist, vocalist and composer, who was billed as "Queen of the Boogie". She was Inducted in the Rhythm and Blues Foundation Hall of Fame in 1993.
Career
Her first recording ...
,
Johnny Dodds
Johnny Dodds (; April 12, 1892 – August 8, 1940) was an American jazz clarinetist and alto saxophonist based in New Orleans, best known for his recordings under his own name and with bands such as those of Joe "King" Oliver, Jelly Roll Morton, ...
,
J. C. Higginbotham
J. (Jack) C. Higginbotham (May 11, 1906 – May 26, 1973) was an American jazz trombonist. His playing was robust and swinging.
Biography
He was born in Social Circle, Georgia, United States, and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio. In the 1930s a ...
,
Lionel Hampton
Lionel Leo Hampton (April 20, 1908 – August 31, 2002) was an American jazz vibraphonist, pianist, percussionist, and bandleader. Hampton worked with jazz musicians from Teddy Wilson, Benny Goodman, and Buddy Rich, to Charlie Parker, Charles M ...
, and
Jimmie Noone
Jimmie Noone (April 23, 1895 – April 19, 1944) was an American jazz clarinetist and bandleader. After beginning his career in New Orleans, he led Jimmie Noone's Apex Club Orchestra, a Chicago band that recorded for Vocalion and Decca. Classical ...
.
He played electric guitar from 1940.
He recorded solo numbers for
Blue Note
In jazz and blues, a blue note is a note that—for expressive purposes—is sung or played at a slightly different pitch from standard. Typically the alteration is between a quartertone and a semitone, but this varies depending on the musical co ...
in 1940;
after this, his popularity declined.
By the 1970s, Bunn played electric guitar almost exclusively in
R&B bands.
He suffered a stroke after joining
Louis Jordan
Louis Thomas Jordan (July 8, 1908 – February 4, 1975) was an American saxophonist, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and bandleader who was popular from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. Known as " the King of the Jukebox", he earned his high ...
's band,
and was sick for more than a decade.
He died on July 20, 1978, in
Lancaster, California
Lancaster is a charter city in northern Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, in the Antelope Valley of the western Mojave Desert in Southern California. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 173,51 ...
.
Playing style
Bunn's playing was "predominantly melodic rather than chordal".
He did not use a pick; he used "mostly my thumb, that's how I figured it when I first had that first guitar."
Notes
References
External links
Teddy Bunn recordingsat the
Discography of American Historical Recordings
The Discography of American Historical Recordings (DAHR) is a database of master recordings made by American record companies during the 78rpm era. The DAHR provides some of these original recordings, free of charge, via audio streaming, along with ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bunn, Teddy
1910 births
1978 deaths
American male composers
American jazz guitarists
Swing guitarists
American blues guitarists
American male guitarists
20th-century American composers
20th-century American guitarists
20th-century American male musicians
American male jazz musicians
Spirits of Rhythm members
The Washboard Rhythm Kings members