Humphrey "Teddy" Brannon (September 27, 1916,

Moultrie, Georgia Moultrie is the county seat and largest city of Colquitt County, Georgia, United States. It is the third largest city in Southwest Georgia, behind Thomasville and Albany. As of the 2010 census, Moultrie's population was 14,268. It was originall ...

– February 24, 1989,

Newark Newark most commonly refers to: * Newark, New Jersey, city in the United States * Newark Liberty International Airport, New Jersey; a major air hub in the New York metropolitan area Newark may also refer to: Places Canada * Niagara-on-the ...

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

) 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 ...

and

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

pianist. Brannon began on piano at age nine. He played in dance bands in high school and worked locally in

nightclub A nightclub (music club, discothèque, disco club, or simply club) is an entertainment venue during nighttime comprising a dance floor, lightshow, and a stage for live music or a disc jockey (DJ) who plays recorded music. Nightclubs gener ...

s in Newark from 1937 to 1942. From November 1942 to early 1944 he toured and recorded with

Benny Carter Bennett Lester Carter (August 8, 1907 – July 12, 2003) was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, trumpeter, composer, arranger, and bandleader. With Johnny Hodges, he was a pioneer on the alto saxophone. From the beginning of his career ...

.Kennedy, Gary W
"Brannon, Teddy".
''Grove Music Online''. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 26 November 2022. He recorded with

Roy Eldridge David Roy Eldridge (January 30, 1911 – February 26, 1989), nicknamed "Little Jazz", was an American jazz trumpeter. His sophisticated use of harmony, including the use of tritone substitutions, his virtuosic solos exhibiting a departure from t ...

in 1944. From the mid-1940s to 1950, Brannon led his own groups in New York, while performing as a sideman at sessions led by

Rubberlegs Williams Henry "Rubberlegs" Williams (14 July 1907 in Atlanta - 17 October 1962 in New York City) was an American blues and jazz singer, dancer and occasional female impersonator. A star of Vaudeville, he is probably best remembered for his singing work wi ...

(1945), with whom he recorded "Bring It On Home," featuring an 18-year old Miles Davis on trumpet,

Don Byas Carlos Wesley "Don" Byas (October 21, 1912 – August 24, 1972) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist, associated with swing and bebop. He played with Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Art Blakey, and Dizzy Gillespie, among others, and also led ...

(1946), and

Dinah Washington Dinah Washington (born Ruth Lee Jones; August 29, 1924 – December 14, 1963) was an American singer and pianist, who has been cited as "the most popular black female recording artist of the 1950s songs". Primarily a jazz vocalist, she performe ...

(1947–8). Washington recorded several songs with the Teddy Brannon Quartet, including "Stairway to the Stars," "I Love You, Yes I Do," and "I Wish I Knew the Name of the Boy." In the 1950s and 1960s Brannon worked in the studios with

doo wop Doo-wop (also spelled doowop and doo wop) is a genre of rhythm and blues music that originated in African-American communities during the 1940s, mainly in the large cities of the United States, including New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Chica ...

groups and played extensively in jazz idioms, including with

, again with Roy Eldridge (recording in 1951),

Buddy Rich Bernard "Buddy" Rich (September 30, 1917 – April 2, 1987) was an American jazz drummer, songwriter, conductor, and bandleader. He is considered one of the most influential drummers of all time. Rich was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York ...

Bennie Green Bennie Green (April 16, 1923 – March 23, 1977) was an American jazz trombonist. Born in Chicago, Illinois, United States, Green worked in the orchestras of Earl Hines and Charlie Ventura, and recorded as bandleader through the 1950s and ...

(recording in 1951),

Johnny Hodges Cornelius "Johnny" Hodges (July 25, 1907 – May 11, 1970) was an American alto saxophonist, best known for solo work with Duke Ellington's big band. He played lead alto in the saxophone section for many years. Hodges was also featured on soprano ...

Illinois Jacquet Jean-Baptiste "Illinois" Jacquet (October 30, 1922 – July 22, 2004) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist, best remembered for his solo on "Flying Home", critically recognized as the first R&B saxophone solo. Although he was a pioneer of t ...

and recorded with

Tab Smith Talmadge "Tab" Smith (January 11, 1909 – August 17, 1971) was an American swing and rhythm and blues alto saxophonist. He is best remembered for the tracks "Because of You" and "Pretend". He worked with Count Basie, the Mills Rhythm Boys a ...

. He also accompanied singers such as

Ruth Brown Ruth Alston Brown (; January 12, 1928 – November 17, 2006) was an American singer-songwriter and actress, sometimes referred to as the " Queen of R&B". She was noted for bringing a pop music style to R&B music in a series of hit songs for Atl ...

Billie Holiday Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Fagan; April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959) was an American jazz and swing music singer. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and music partner, Lester Young, Holiday had an innovative influence on jazz music and pop si ...

Babs Gonzales Babs Gonzales (October 27, 1919 – January 23, 1980), born Lee Brown, was an American bebop vocalist, poet, and self-published author. His books portrayed the jazz world that many black musicians struggled in, portraying disk jockeys, club owner ...

(Brannon's

cousin Most generally, in the lineal kinship system used in the English-speaking world, a cousin is a type of familial relationship in which two relatives are two or more familial generations away from their most recent common ancestor. Commonly, " ...

). During the 1950s and 1960s, he also was a member of the Grammy Award-winning Jonah Jones Quartet, and appeared with them on the 1958 television special "An Evening with Fred Astaire" and the 1959 special "Another Evening with Fred Astaire."

Discography

With

Jonah Jones Jonah Jones (born Robert Elliott Jones; December 31, 1909 – April 29, 2000) was a jazz trumpeter who created concise versions of jazz and swing and jazz standards that appealed to a mass audience. In the jazz community, he is known for his w ...

* ''Swingin' Round the World'' (Capitol, 1959) * ''Jumpin' with a Shuffle'' (Capitol, 1961) * ''The Unsinkable Jonah Jones Swings the Unsinkable Molly Brown'' (Capitol, 1961) * ''Great Instrumental Hits Styled by Jonah Jones'' (Capitol, 1961) With

* '' Rockin' Chair'' (Clef, 1951)

References

;Footnotes ;General references *

Eugene Chadbourne Eugene Chadbourne (born January 4, 1954) is an American banjoist, guitarist and music critic. Life and career Chadbourne was born in Mount Vernon, New York, but grew up in Boulder, Colorado. He started playing guitar when he was eleven or twel ...

Teddy Brannon Humphrey "Teddy" Brannon (September 27, 1916, Moultrie, Georgia – February 24, 1989, Newark, New Jersey, Newark, New Jersey) was an American jazz and blues pianist. Brannon began on piano at age nine. He played in dance bands in high school and ...

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brannon, Teddy 1916 births 1989 deaths American jazz pianists American male pianists Musicians from Georgia (U.S. state) 20th-century American pianists 20th-century American male musicians American male jazz musicians