TEDDY WILSON - Smoke Gets In Your Eyes

RECORDED IN 1941. Theodore Shaw "Teddy" Wilson (November 24, 1912 July 31, 1986) was a jazz pianist from the United States born in Austin, Texas. His sophisticated and elegant style graced the records of many of the biggest names in jazz, including Louis Armstrong, Lena Horne, Benny Goodman, Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald. He is considered one of the most influential jazz pianists of all time.Wilson studied piano and violin at Tuskegee Institute. After working in the Lawrence "Speed" Webb band, with Louis Armstrong and also "understudying" Earl Hines in Hines's Grand Terrace Cafe Orchestra, Wilson joined Benny Carter's Chocolate Dandies in 1933. In 1935 he joined the Benny Goodman Trio (which consisted of Goodman, Wilson and drummer Gene Krupa, later expanded to the Benny Goodman Quartet with the addition of Lionel Hampton). The trio performed during the big band's intermissions. By joining the trio, Wilson became the first black musician to perform in public with a previously all-white jazz group. The noted jazz writer and producer John Hammond was instrumental in getting Wilson a contract with Brunswick, starting in 1935, to record hot swing arrangements of the popular songs of the day, with the growing jukebox trade in mind. He recorded fifty hit records with various singers such as Lena Horne and Helen Ward, including many of Billie Holiday's greatest successes. During these years he also took part in many highly regarded sessions with a wide range of important swing musicians, such as Lester Young, Roy Eldridge, Charlie Shavers, Red Norvo, Buck Clayton and Ben Webster. Wilson formed his own short-lived big band in 1939, then led a sextet at Cafe Society from 1940 to 1944. He was dubbed the "Marxist Mozart" by Howard "Stretch" Johnson due to his support for left-wing causes he performed in benefit concerts for The New Masses journal and for Russian War Relief, and chaired the Artists' Committee to elect Benjamin J. Davis.[1] In the 1950s he taught at the Juilliard School. Wilson can be seen appearing as himself in the motion picture The Benny Goodman Story (1955). Wilson lived quietly in suburban Hillsdale, NJ in the 1960s and 1970s. He performed as a soloist, and with pick-up groups until the final years of his life. Teddy Wilson died on July 31, 1986.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• TEDDY
• WILSON
• Smoke
• Gets
• In
• Your
• Eyes
• jazz
• piano
• instrumental
• Texas
• Benny Goodman
• Lionel Hampton

[Happysundaze]

Just discovering how absolutely great Teddy Wilson was. a real jazz colossus whose first played on recordings  when he was a teenager in the late 1920s.

[theWarriorUnknown]

Really cool ! and a great left hand, you just can't beat the old guys can you?

[vimana19]

There was much influence of others in Art's playing to he'd never admit to. I heard him say in an interview he never said that he was a concert pianist. There are those who say Taum would've been the greatest concert pianist, if he'd taken up classical, One ne could say that about Rubenstein in parallel, what if he'd taken up Jazz? When I posted to you I was tempted to check the dates on google, but it wouldn't be the same. So, if Tatum is the abominable sand, I'm off to get stuck in it.

[MooPotPie]

@vimana19 Tatum was modeled on Fats Waller according to his own admission, but there is plenty of cross-influece evident among contemporaries. Tatum predates Wilson a bit and is far more complex, not just technically (of course), but in terms of harmony and flexibility of form. Wilson shares Tatum's florid aesthetic but is more conventional and commercial. I suppose trying to compare any other player, now or then, to Art Tatum is a pit of quicksand. LOL

[vimana19]

@MooPotPie I thought Tatum was part influenced and modelled from Teddy, I would not implictly confer Tatum on Teddy, if I am mistaken about what you say then please accept my apology...



[MooPotPie]

Wilson at his best sounds like the blueprint for Nat Cole's style ...at his worst , like Tatum on Quaaludes.

[sturdleyburdeux]

Right on wallpole!

[wallpole]

Not always mentioned among the greats.But he was as good as anybody and better than most.

[Wannock1]

Teddy Wilson........solo......It doesn't get better than this. Thanks for posing

Anne. 

[tomtomtom692]

a fine  piano player.