{{short description|American jazz pianist}} {{Use mdy dates|date=March 2016}} {{infobox musical artist | name = Teddy Weatherford | image = Teddy Weatherford.jpg | caption = Teddy Weatherford (1926) | birth_place = [[Pocahontas, Virginia]], United States | birth_date = {{birth date|1903|10|11}} | death_place = [[Calcutta]], [[India]] | death_date = {{death date and age|1945|4|25|1903|10|11}} | occupation = Musician | instrument = Piano | genre = Jazz }}
'''Teddy Weatherford''' (October 11, 1903 − April 25, 1945) was an [[Americans|American]] [[jazz]] pianist and an accomplished [[stride pianist]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=1970-01-01 |title=Piano Demon |url=http://magazine.atavist.com/piano-demon/ |access-date=2022-05-17 |website=The Atavist Magazine |language=en-US}}</ref>
== Biography == Weatherford was born in [[Pocahontas, Virginia]],<ref name="LarkinJazz">{{cite book|title=[[Encyclopedia of Popular Music|The Guinness Who's Who of Jazz]]|editor=[[Colin Larkin (writer)|Colin Larkin]]|publisher=[[Guinness Publishing]]|date=1995|edition=Second|isbn=0-85112-674-X|page=480}}</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">{{cite web |url=https://www.allmusic.com/artist/teddy-weatherford-mn0001839197/biography |title=Artist Biography of Teddy Weatherford |last=Yanow |first=Scott |publisher=AllMusic |access-date=March 25, 2016}}</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">{{cite book |last=Shope |first=Bradley G. |date=2016 |title=American Popular Music in Britain's Raj |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g0kTswEACAAJ |location=Rochester, NY |series=Eastman Studies in Music |volume=131 |publisher=[[Boydell & Brewer|University of Rochester Press]] |isbn=978-1-58046-548-9}}</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">{{cite book |last=Koerner |first=Brendan I. |date=2008 |title=[[Now the Hell Will Start|Now the Hell Will Start: One Soldier's Flight from the Greatest Manhunt of World War II]] |location=New York |publisher=[[Penguin Group|The Penguin Press]] |page=[https://archive.org/details/nowhellwillstart00koer/page/158 158] |isbn=978-1-59420-173-8 }}</ref> where he made [[radio]] broadcasts for the [[American Forces Network|U. S. Armed Forces Radio Service]]. Performers with Weatherford's band included [[Bridget Althea Moe]],<ref name="tajmahalfoxtrot.com">{{cite web |url=http://www.tajmahalfoxtrot.com/?p=762 |title=Happy Birthday, Bridget Moe |last= Fernandes |first=Naresh |date=October 8, 2011 |publisher=Taj Mahal Foxtrot |access-date=March 25, 2016}}</ref> [[Jimmy Witherspoon]], Roy Butler, [[Gery Scott]] and [[Cedric West]].
Teddy Weatherford died of [[cholera]] in Calcutta, aged 41.<ref name="allmusic.com" />
==References== <references/>
== Further reading == Bradley Shope, ''American Popular Music in Britain's Raj.'' Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2016.{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Weatherford, Teddy}} [[Category:Stride pianists]] [[Category:Swing pianists]] [[Category:African-American pianists]] [[Category:American jazz pianists]] [[Category:American male jazz pianists]] [[Category:Deaths from cholera in India]] [[Category:People from Pocahontas, Virginia]] [[Category:Musicians from Bluefield, West Virginia]] [[Category:1903 births]] [[Category:1945 deaths]] [[Category:20th-century American pianists]] [[Category:Jazz musicians from Virginia]] [[Category:20th-century African-American musicians]] [[Category:20th-century American male pianists]]