Teddy Wilson

Teddy Wilson earned recognition as the leading pianist of the swing period, a reliable and precise improviser whose even-tempered and refined approach reached wider audiences than the more intricate methods of Earl Hines or Art Tatum. Early jobs included time with Speed Webb in 1929 and appearances on select Louis Armstrong sessions in 1933. John Hammond’s discovery brought him into Benny Carter’s orchestra and onto recordings with the Chocolate Dandies before the year ended. In 1935 Wilson began supervising a run of influential small-group dates populated by leading swing players, many of which included Billie Holiday. An unplanned studio gathering that same year with Benny Goodman and Gene Krupa produced the Benny Goodman Trio, which became a quartet when Lionel Hampton joined in 1936. Although he performed as a featured guest rather than a permanent member of the Goodman orchestra, Wilson’s onstage presence with the band advanced the fight against segregation. The second half of the 1930s yielded a wealth of distinguished sides from Wilson’s own sessions, from Goodman’s smaller ensembles, and from solo piano dates. He departed Goodman in 1939 to organize his own big band, which, despite several strong releases, dissolved the following year. Between 1940 and 1944 Wilson led a sextet at Cafe Society, taught at Juilliard during the summers from 1945 to 1952, performed on radio programs, and maintained a steady schedule of trio, solo, and pickup-group recordings while occasionally reuniting with Goodman. The 1960s found him serving as music director for the Dick Cavett Show, and in 1979 Berklee College of Music awarded him an Honorary Doctorate of Music. Teddy Wilson succumbed to stomach cancer on July 31, 1986, at age 73.