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Teddy Edwards

A pioneer hard bopper on the tenor and recognized as one of the masters in the L.A. Central Avenue scene, Edwards leaves a huge legacy of recorded music, stretching from the Forties right through to his death in 2003. Born in Jackson, Mississippi, on 26th April 1924, Edwards moved to Los Angeles in 1945, first coming to attention the following year when, with trumpeter Howard McGhee's group, he recorded the groundbreaking bebop tune, “Up In Dodo's Room.” By the end of that decade Edwards was sufficiently well known to front his own bands. In 1949 he was also one of the first members of the Lighthouse All Stars, the group based at the famous Lighthouse Club in Hermosa Beach. Five years later, in 1954, Edwards was invited to join the Max Roach Quintet, a group that also featured legendary trumpeter Clifford Brown. Edwards' tenor perfectly complemented Brown's eloquent style, a partnership also helped by Teddy's growing talents as a composer. Indeed, the Quintet's recording of Edwards' classic “Sunset Eyes” is a testament to the effectiveness of the relationship. By the mid-Fifties Edwards was long established as a regular at West Coast festivals and clubs and, over the next few years, he worked with such diverse musicians as Benny Goodman, Les McCann, Dizzy Gillespie, Milt Jackson, Ray Brown, Benny Carter, Hampton Hawes, Earl Hines and Gerald Wilson. He also wrote songs for Nancy Wilson, Jimmy Witherspoon and Ernie Andrews. In 1978 Edwards came to Europe for the first of what became regular visits. Among the dates were festivals in Norway, Holland and Belgium. Edwards' talents came to the attention of a wider audience when, in 1982, he teamed up with the singer Tom Waits on his Oscar-nominated soundtrack for Francis Ford Coppola's film, “One From the Heart.” Edwards also joined Waits on a tour of Australia and New Zealand that same year. It was the start of a lifetime friendship, a relationship that also included Waits' appearance on Teddy Edwards' 1991 album, “Mississippi Lad.” Despite recurring illness, Edwards continued to play and record throughout the Nineties. His schedule included European festivals and UK tours as well as shows throughout the United States. A jazz player of unique talent, Edwards will be remembered as a consistently inventive and dexterous musician. Bio by Rob Partridge

Source: Rob Partridge

Teddy Edwards / Howard McGhee: Together Again!!!!

Read "Together Again!!!!" reviewed by Richard J Salvucci

by Richard J Salvucci
October 26, 2024

Howard McGhee was one of the cats present at the creation, when bop became a thing. His life embodied a classic redemption story, complete with death (metaphorically) by drugs, years in exile and finally, by dint of his own struggles and a timely gig with Woody Herman, resurrection. While he had been widely admired and respected in the late 1940s as a pioneering trumpeter, the unspoken judgment was that it was his misfortune to come to prominence when Dizzy Gillespie ...

Album Review

Leroy Vinnegar: Leroy Vinnegar Walks

Read "Leroy Vinnegar Walks" reviewed by Richard J Salvucci

by Richard J Salvucci
July 6, 2023

Chances are good that the name of bassist Leroy Vinnegar does not ring much of a bell among contemporary audiences. He does not have the cachet of a Ray Brown or an Oscar Pettiford, two names that a lot of professional bassists will instantly recognize, along with Scott LaFaro, with whom Vinnegar all too briefly overlapped. It is a bit surprising, although no one ever claimed that Vinnegar was a revolutionary. He was clearly in the ...

Album Review

Teddy Edwards: Four Classic Albums

Read "Four Classic Albums" reviewed by David Rickert

by David Rickert
February 13, 2016

Teddy Edwards was a formidable tenor player on the '50s and '60s West Coast scene with a warm and congenial tone reflected the laid-back thoughtfulness of the West Coast scene with enough soul to indicate he was listening some Coleman Hawkins in the midst of the Lester Young platters. His own recordings were a typical mix of originals and standards, many of which were brief enough to fit comfortably on a 78. After being sidelined for a few years with ...

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Album Review

Teddy Edwards: Smooth Sailing

Read "Smooth Sailing" reviewed by Terrell Kent Holmes

by Terrell Kent Holmes
May 5, 2003

There's a famous story about how Lester Young, after listening to a young saxophonist play an overlong, blustery, cliché-riddled solo, looked at him and said, “Yeah, but can you sing me a song?" Leave it to Pres to get to the heart of the matter with a sentence whose very conciseness underscores his point. Teddy Edwards’ latest disc, Smooth Sailing, is a fine example of economical playing and arrangement. The saxophonist is joined by pianist Richard Wyands, bassist Ray Drummond, ...

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Interview

A Fireside Chat with Teddy Edwards

by AAJ Staff
April 24, 2003

Teddy Edwards passed away over the weekend after a lengthy battle with prostate cancer. Edwards will be missed terribly. To see yet another voice unheard and unappreciated during his lifetime is a source of great angst for me. So an encore of a Fireside I did with Mr. Teddy Edwards a few years back. Teddy Edwards should be a legend. But then there would be justice in the world and justice is something beyond comprehension these days. ...

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Album Review

Teddy Edwards: Sunset Eyes

by Larry Koenigsberg
October 1, 1998

There’s little on veteran Los Angeles-based tenor saxophonist Teddy Edwards’ date which sounds distinctively West Coast but here it is, part of a program of Pacific Jazz limited edition reissues in their West Coast Classics series from Capitol Records. All but one of the tracks feature Leroy Vinnegar on bass and Billy Higgins on drums, the latter fresh from several sessions with Ornette Coleman and here playing as straight ahead as can be, the whole rhythm section swinging like mad, ...

Recording

The Inimitable Teddy Edwards

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
July 19, 2016

As part of its reissue of select albums on the Xanadu label, Resonance Records has just released The Inimitable Teddy Edwards, which was recorded in June 1976. The album is important because it features tenor saxophonist Edwards in spectacular form accompanied by a sterling trio—Duke Jordan (p), Larry Ridley (b) and Freddie Waits (d). By '76, Edwards had been around since the mid-1940s but never seemed to be able to forge a brand image for himself as a leader. Part ...
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Video / DVD

Video: Teddy Edwards, 1962

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
June 5, 2014

In the tenor sax pantheon, there's Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Dexter Gordon, Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane. But then there are dozens of smaller giants who were solid, fluid, soulful players, including Wardell Gray, Zoot Sims, Stan Getz, Harold Land, Hank Mobley, Eddie “Lockjaw" Davis, Frank Wess and Sonny Stitt. Often forgotten today is Teddy Edwards, who was born in Mississippi, moved to Detroit and wound up in Los Angeles in the 1940s and remained there for much of his ...
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Event

Teddy Edwards Memorial Concert

Source: All About Jazz
May 12, 2003

Hollywood-Hundreds of people crowded into the Musicians Union at 817 N. Vine St. in Hollywood for a memorial concert for the late great tenor saxophonist Teddy Edwards. This memorial was filled with lots of jazz, blues and great camarade. Teddy Edwards was remembered as a fun loving, father, brother, uncle and friend by all who knew him.

Teddy Edwards passed away on April 20th, in Los Angeles at the age of 78, after a long bout with prostate cancer. Many ...
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Obituary

Teddy Edwards: Major Player on the West Coast Scene

Source: All About Jazz

Born: April 26, 1924 in Jackson, Mississippi Died: April 20, 2003 in Los Angeles, California

Teddy (Theodore Marcus) Edwards was a major figure on the post-war jazz scene in Los Angeles, where he settled in 1945, and adopted his familiar tenor (rather than alto) saxophone in a group led by Howard McGhee.

He led his own bands for five decades, and also worked as a soloist with many major names in jazz, including Max Roach, Benny Goodman, Shelly ...
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