Teddy Weatherford

Teddy Weatherford (October 11, 1903 − April 25, 1945) was an American jazz pianist and an accomplished stride pianist.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Biography

Weatherford was born in Pocahontas, Virginia,<ref name="LarkinJazz">Template:Cite book</ref> and was raised in neighboring Bluefield, West Virginia. From 1915 through 1920, he lived in New Orleans, Louisiana, where he learned to play jazz piano.<ref name="allmusic.com">Template:Cite web</ref> He then moved to Chicago, Illinois, in 1922<ref name="LarkinJazz"/> where he worked with such bands as that of Erskine Tate<ref name="allmusic.com" /> through the 1920s and with such jazz notables as Louis Armstrong and Johnny Dodds and impressed the young Earl Hines.

Weatherford then traveled, first to Amsterdam, then around Asia playing professionally. In the early 1930s, he led a band at the Taj Mahal Hotel in Bombay (now Mumbai), India.<ref name="Shope-2016">Template:Cite book</ref> He joined Crickett Smith's band in Jakarta, Indonesia. Weatherford took over leadership of Smith's band in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in 1937.

During World War II, he led a band in Calcutta,<ref name="Koerner-2008">Template:Cite book</ref> where he made radio broadcasts for the U. S. Armed Forces Radio Service. Performers with Weatherford's band included Bridget Althea Moe,<ref name="tajmahalfoxtrot.com">Template:Cite web</ref> Jimmy Witherspoon, Roy Butler, Gery Scott and Cedric West.

Teddy Weatherford died of cholera in Calcutta, aged 41.<ref name="allmusic.com" />

References

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Further reading

Bradley Shope, American Popular Music in Britain's Raj. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2016.Template:Authority control