Then It Starts Again Teddi King

Teddi Rex "In the beginning" liner notes by Ted Takashi Ono, Producer (May 1999)

"Ah, the marvelous simplicity of it all! Here's a girl, this Teddi Male monarch. A girl, a woman, a musician, a vocaliser and a jazzman. A wondrous slip of a thing with a voice that tin can either fill a hall, or whisper the tender honey poems of this mixed-upwardly mid-century with equally telling outcome. This is a girl who has a superb human relationship with her music. She becomes intertwined, intermeshed and interdependent with a song, and both she and it grow a little in coming to know each other. And, oh, her songs! They reflect the impeccable gustatory modality of this warmly wistful creature. Teddi Rex, pinned to a stage by a stiletto of surprise pink, has a wonderful fashion of digging downwardly deep in the old stab wounds of beloved, and of then bounden them up with the fresh, clean, crystalline purity of her way with a song. Largely, I guess, Miss Rex's specialite is the straightforward, the honest, the eyes-open annunciation of dearest or war. It's an unabashed
statement she makes, whether of injure or of joy. When Teddi King sings a song, she reveals it. She has the quality of taking a pop tune and turning it out a classic-like that other greatly honest singer, Helen Ward. She has a deep respect for the inner pregnant of a lyric."
1 David Drew Zingg wrote on the album notes for her 1956 album TO YOU FROM TEDDI KING. Since Mr. Zingg put it and then well, I thought information technology was silly for me to endeavour to capture the essence of what he had written with my ain words. If there was such a thing as a "semi-fable", Teddi King should exist the peak qualifier for information technology. Although she never was a big star in either field of pop or jazz, she was always highly regarded as an artist with very special qualities. A big stardom was not meant for her, nor could she e'er be a diva a la Lee Wiley. Teddi was a lady, together, very intelligent, witty, and downwards to world. She had clear visions about who she was and what type of performer she wanted to be. She was a rarity in the field that was dominated by ones who were arrogant, eccentric,
and screwed-upward. To proper noun those who were somewhat like Teddi, I tin can only come up with Jackie Cain of Jackie & Roy fame, and Irene Kral, Jackie'south sis-in-law, both warm, genuine, sincere, together ladies. Even so, there was no one exactly like Teddi, whose career was rather mysterious with many unusual turns and twists.
Theodora Male monarch, the only daughter of vaudevillian Roy King, was born on September eighteen, 1929 in Revere MA. Although she ever sang to entertain her family unit and friends and studied classical pianoforte, her dream from
childhood was to get an extra. She played some lead rolls during her years with her high school drama guild that, after graduation, led her to a regional theater group chosen "The Tributary Theatre of Boston". One of the directors candidly cautioned her that her top (four'11" when she was 18) might become a major obstruction for her dramatic pursuit. Because she could sing, he suggested that she study legitimate singing to expand her horizon toward lite opera and musical comedies. Information technology took only iii months of studying classical singing before she landed herself a featured role with a solo number. That role, a mermaid in "Peter Pan" got her great praises from every direction, so much that it persuaded her to consider a singing career in nightclubs and dance halls.

In 1949, dance halls were still pop places to mind to bands, fifty-fifty though Silly Gillespie and Charlie Parker had raised the stature of band music from dance hall entertainment to an art form, something to sit downwards and heed to at a jazz gild, a couple of years earlier. Sarah Vaughan and June Christy were the new important songstresses whom kids were trying to emulate. It took a while for Teddi King to convince herself that she could brand it every bit a professional pop vocalizer, but winning a Dinah Shore contest in a local RKO theater out of a field of 500 contestants did it. She went around to sing with ane local dance ring after another: George Graham, Jack Edwards, Nat Pierce, Ray Dorey, and again Nat Pierce. She fabricated her recording debut with Pierce's band on May 19, 1949. The vocal "Goodbye Mr. Chops" (issued on Motif) was a regional hit, but she actually hated it. Information technology was because she was told to imitate June Christy on this record. She just could not find anything to relate to when the "absurd school"
of jazz singing was concerned. She loved Mildred Bailey and Billie Vacation, and that was her taste.
Nat Pierce's band was a be-bop influenced jazz band. By the time she began to tour with Pierce, Teddi was hooked on Sarah Vaughan'due south sound. She said, "I know it is simply a superficial attribute of singing, but I can't stop playing Sarah'south records. Mildred Bailey is my idol, but I am totally addicted to Sarah's audio". Like Jackie Cain of the same
flow, Teddi'south singing was heavily influenced by Sarah Vaughan. She cutting five sides (although only 2 of them were issued) with Nat Pierce. On "Mr. Chops" and "Crazy Moon", she had to do her June Christy imitation, on the rest, Sarah'due south influence on her is evident. Unlike Jackie Cain, who totally dropped the Sarah Vaughan mannerism and found her own sound quickly, information technology manifested frequently in Teddi'due south singing throughout the 1950s.
We are fortunate to exist able to include v extremely rare acetate demo disks Teddi fabricated in this drove. She (in 1976) did not remember when she cut these sides, whether before her debut with Nat Pierce's ring or later. The band that accompanied her on 2 sides was John Farrell's. For the rest, she was accompanied only by pianoforte. Judging by the maturity of her phonation and style, I believe that they were recorded later her last Nat Pierce date. 5 of the vii demo discs had no credits. I contacted ASCAP and BMI, but I could not notice the name of the composers for four of these originals. She left the band business to focus on her jazz club and boob tube
piece of work in 1951. She speedily became a familiar face on local Boston TV stations. George Wein, jazz pianist and the possessor of Storyville (both the club and the record label) became her unofficial manager. It was at Storyville where George Shearing discovered Teddi in early 1952. Shearing rarely worked with a vocalist after he worked with Sarah
Vaughan at Café Society Uptown in 1946, but he was utterly charmed past Teddi's singing and personality. He hired her to tour with his philharmonic throughout Usa, Canada, United mexican states, and England for virtually two years. Their association continued on and off till 1959. By and so, the tour package had grown to George Shearing, Teddi Male monarch, Billy Eckstine, and the Ray Charles Singers. It is rather disappointing to the states fans that Shearing had Teddi on merely six sides as far as recordings were concerned. On these sides, her Vaughan obsession is noticeable. She likes to dip down to unnecessarily low notes, though effortless, which I find is out of graphic symbol. Withal, "Midnight Belongs To You lot" is hauntingly beautiful.

In 1954, Teddi and her husband, drummer Josh Garber, were spending more and more than fourth dimension in New York. George Wein had promised her a recording session, only days went past without a clear delivery from Wein. George
Shearing's manager was booking Teddi every bit a solo act by that fourth dimension, and he got together with composer-promoter Joe Green to organize her first leader session. Teddi and her friends also chipped in to pay for the session and they hired Dick Jecobs (her old associate) to orchestrate. They went into one of the MGM recording studios to cut "The
Dragon", "In the Year You've Gone", "My Funny Footling Lover", and a song closely associated with Mildred Bailey, "I'll Never Exist the Same". Ironically, George Wein finally came through for Teddi, and she had to blitz downwards to Boston on the following day to tape her first LP, "Round Midnight", for Storyville. Wein also presented her at the first Newport Jazz Festival in June that year. The four sides she recorded with Dick Jacobs were brought to MGM, only
they were turned downward due to the record visitor's fearfulness of causing whatever type of competition betwixt Teddi and their big star Joni James. As a result, she had to look over a year until she at last managed to license those sides to Decca. They were issued on Brunswick EP and Coral 45s simultaneously. Meanwhile, she recorded her second LP, "Miss Teddi King", for Storyville. I consider it her best album, even though it was just a 10-inch anthology. It is because she had the best possible jazz backing (a quartet led consisted of Ruby Braff, Jimmie Jones, Milt Hinton, and Jo Jones) and she was totally free of Sarah Vaughan'south influence for in one case. RCA Victor was the first major label to sign Teddi Rex at last. In the typical George Wein manner, he rushed in to do some other LP with Teddi, 12 inch at last, but a few days before her RCA contract was to outset. That Storyville LP, "Now In Vogue", and her get-go Victor session for the album "Biding My Time", were recorded but x days apart.
Although she had one tiptop forty hitting, "Mr. Wonderful", and subsequent offers to play major theaters and hotels, she felt uncomfortable with her new status as a pop singer. She preferred playing jazz dates but jazz programs on radio and goggle box completely ignored her. She specially hated xvi popular single sides she had to record for RCA. In the middle of those frustrating days, she was asked to appear on the series for the Navy recruit program "Out Of Blueish" with Dick Hyman'southward pocket-sized jazz group. Each tune was very short, but she truly enjoyed the "Out Of Blue" dates,
on which she could sing with such jazz giants as Roy Eldridge and Charlie Shavers. As a bonus program, we decided to include 4 songs from almost thirty she recorded for the series. Hither she is once again a wonderful jazz vocalist, even when she does such pop tunes as "Tammy", "An Affair to Remember", and "Beloved Is a Many-Splendored Matter". She sings them with aplomb and gusto.
In 1954, Lena Horne returned to recording when she signed a long-term contract with RCA Victor. Teddi liked the fashion Lena was doing Harold Arlen tunes, so she started emulating Lena'due south dramatic singing style. To my personal taste, it was not the right matter for Teddi to do. I retrieve the strongest point of her singing, intimacy, began to diminish. Her singing became sometimes too controlled. Still, nil could alter the fact that Teddi Male monarch was a wonderful and unique singer.

At the end of 1958, her contract with RCA Victor concluded. Her own feelings about her RCA years remained terribly mixed for the rest of her life. I think many of the 52 songs she recorded for RCA were wonderful. In 1959, she recorded ane album and ii singles for MCA Coral. After that experience, she was totally disillusioned by the recording business; she never went afterwards a tape visitor. In a sense, she never recorded again. 
Teddi Male monarch cut 2 more sides effectually that time. Even though they were completely pop oriented, we decided to include them just for their historical value. "This Magic Moment" was a big hit for the Drifters in 1959. Teddi'southward recording was pressed on Champion. The 45 does not have any issue number, therefore, it was possibly a promotional record. It is very difficult to date the session, but I believe it was after her Coral sessions. There are as well rumors that Teddi recorded some jazz sides under a pseudonym during her RCA years. If anyone knows nearly
those recordings, please contact me. I will truly capeesh it.
Between 1962 and 1970, Teddi disappeared from the public consciousness. Information technology was non that she stopped singing. Actually she was working all the time and making a great deal of money. She signed an sectional contract
with Playboy Clubs. According to my sources, it was such an exclusive agreement that she could not appear on television, nor any concerts or nightclubs, nor could she record for anyone. It was strictly at Playboy Clubs merely. A rumor has information technology that they were planning to release some Teddi King recordings on the Playboy label. They actually recorded a considerable corporeality of her "live" performances, just nothing materialized. Some believe that it killed her career completely. That might have been truthful in a sense, but she was happy traveling far and broad, Europe, Asia, South America, and Australia.
In 1970, Teddi began to make New York lodge appearances again, but she became ill and was diagnosed with Lupus. She had to slow down considerably from that point. She, still, managed to practice some impressive work, especially her "Mildred Bailey Tribute" plan at Hotel Carlyle in 1975. She sounded similar her old self there. For the rest, I felt that she was also Lena Horne-influenced. All of her albums from the 1970s were "afterthoughts," for they were not originally planned for commercial releases. She and pianist Dave McKenna finally wanted to do a real studio recording and put downward some Ira Gershwin tunes as a demo. Before she could do the bodily session, she suddenly passed away.

My friend Art Zimmerman saw her in early on Nov 1977. She was fine that twenty-four hour period and flew downward to practise a concert in North Carolina a few days later. After her concert, a fan got so exited that he could not restrain himself from giving Teddi a osculation. He had active meningitis and that was enough to make her violently ill because of her compromised immune system due to Lupus. She could barely return to New York and died two days later. She was just 48 years sometime. There is really such a thing as "a osculation of death" in existent life. It took one of most angelic and lovely homo beings away from us.
Since her untimely death, all of her eight albums from the 1950s have been reissued on LP and CD in Japan. Kingdom of spain has one RCA album on CD. They are such fine legacies of this wonderful lady vocalist that it is truly a shame that they are not readily bachelor for fans in North America. At to the lowest degree, this anthology is a nice kickoff. We are hoping to talk
to BMG and Universal MCA to get a license to re-effect everything she recorded for Victor and Coral. If y'all are interested in such projects, please give u.s.a. your name and address. Nosotros do demand fans support to detect our incentives. We really appreciate your writing us. "Remembering Teddi King" by Nat Hentoff (June 2002) Whatsoever I've done equally a reporter, novelist, organizer, and general pain in the ass has its roots when I was 11 and discovered jazz. Some people detect God. I establish Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Lester Immature, and Billie Holiday. I was working so as a commitment boy on a horse-drawn fruit wagon in Boston, and and then was able to buy recordings by my discoveries (iii 78 rpms for a dollar).
On Sundays, I sneaked into jazz clubs to absorb this life force directly. At the Ken Club, moonfaced Sidney Bechet from New Orleans played his soprano saxophone with, it seemed to me, the touch of a typhoon. At the Berlin Jazz Festival in 1964, Martin Luther Male monarch said that black music, very much including jazz, had provided much of the momentum for the civil rights movement.
At 19, I got a job in radio, at WMEX, and the boss let me have a jazz program in the airtime he couldn't sell. That expanded into remotes from jazz clubs. I got to know many run a risk-taking improvisers, and some became my mentors -Rex Stewart, Count Basie'southward drummer Jo Jones, and Charles Mingus.
Ane night, Ben Webster, the tenor saxophonist, who could be volcanic but also intimate and tender when information technology came to ballads, gave me a ideology for the residual of my life. He had left Duke Ellington, much to his subsequently regret -that was the large leagues- and working on his ain on the road, he had to rely on local rhythm sections. During a gig in Boston, the local musicians he'd hired were trying to detect the groove, only came upward curt. Sitting at the bar between sets, Ben Webster said to me, "If the rhythm section ain't making information technology, go for yourself!" Or, as Count Basie used to say, "Every tub's got to stand on its own lesser." That brings me to Teddi Rex.
In that location was a lively local jazz scene in Boston during those years: Ruby Braff, who became a earth-course cornetist, Roy Haynes, Nat Pierce, Toshiko Akiyoshi newly arrived from Nihon and George Wein already a resourceful entrepreneur too equally an exuberant jazz pianist. And there was a singer, Teddi King, who was as well a musician. Not all singers are.
As New Yorker critic Whitney Balliett afterward described her -after Teddi had go a national presence in jazz- "She was barely five feet tall, but her voice was big and relaxed… She had a rich contralto and a broad vibrato, and a peaceful, spacious fashion of phrasing. She never hurried a note, even at fast tempos, and she gave each vocal a repose that carried it though the noisiest room."
Teddi's time was jazz time. And every bit her peers, the musicians, used to say, she was "a slap-up audition". You can tell when a group is making it by the attention the players give to each other, and Teddi moved, grooved, with the band.

In the summer of 1970, while Teddi Rex was working a gig in Nantucket, she developed symptoms of what was eventually diagnosed as lupus [….] Teddi, as the disease took hold, kept working, and her audiences were unaware of her pain and fear because what came through, equally earlier, was "her sheer joy in singing", as John Due south. Wilson wrote in The New York Times.
As Ben Webster's philosophy put it, her bodily rhythm department wasn't making information technology, and so her spirit, her life forcefulness, was keeping her keeping on.
Lupus, notwithstanding, did change her arroyo to singing: "I was afraid I might not accept the phonation I'd had, and I began concentrating on lyrics." Her mentor was Mabel Mercer, who was also a primal influence, along with Billie Holiday, on Frank Sinatra.
Mercer, who mesmerized her listeners, me included, told Teddi that no matter how cute a song'southward melody might exist, she would add it to her repertory simply if the lyrics had meaning for her. And Teddi, using that criterion, deepened her singing. As she said, "If there is a person in the lyrics, I became that person. The lyrics straight my option of notes . . . and the sound follows".
"So", she told Whitney Balliett, "I don't recollect ahead in my phrasing, and every time I do a song, it comes out slightly differently".
For those who never had a chance to hear Teddi Rex, there is "In the Start: 1949-1954", a Teddi King compilation produced by Ted Ono, who devotes his Baldwin Street Music label in Toronto exclusively to singers he cherishes. The collection is in record stores, and on his Web site www.baldwinstreetmusic.com. Amidst her colleagues on the recordings were Nat Pierce, George Shearing, Dick Hyman, Milt Hinton, and Don Lamond.
In his notes, Ted Ono points out that although in her brief career Teddi "had one Pinnacle 40 hit, 'Mr. Wonderful,' and subsequent offers to play major theaters and hotels, she felt uncomfortable with [her later] condition as a popular singer. She preferred playing jazz dates only jazz programs on radio and idiot box completely ignored her".

On In the Beginning, there are such jazz sides every bit "'Swonderful," "Who's Sorry Now?", "What Is This Thing Called Love?" and "This Magic Moment," with Charlie Shavers on trumpet. And the early on pop tracks are models of their kind.
Ono quotes David Drew Zingg on Teddi: "A daughter, a adult female, a musician, a vocaliser, and a jazzman . . . with a vocalisation that tin either fill a hall or whisper tender love poems . . . with equally telling event. . . . It'southward an unabashed statement she makes, whether of injure or joy. No fancy type she. No echo-chamber carom shots off steely-edged tonsils." I completly hold with Ted Takashi Ono to say that this 2d Storyville recording is quiet surely her best work on record. The musicians playing here are for something in this result. Jimmy Jones piano, Jo Jones drums, Milt Hinton bass and Ruby Braff trumpet. No less !!! That's why I'm happy to share it with you and specially with Patricia who requested for this post…

MISS TEDDI KING / STORYVILLE / 1954

DISCOGRAPHY:
1949-1954 In The First (CD Baldwin Street 2000), 'Circular Midnight (RCA 1953), Storyville Presents Miss Teddi King (Storyville 1954), At present In Vogue (Storyville 1956), Bidin' My Time (RCA 1956), To You From Teddi King (RCA 1957), A Girl And Her Songs (RCA 1957), All The King's Songs (Coral 1959), Lovers & Losers (Audiophile 1978), ...This Is New (Inner City 1978).

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Source: http://bonjourqui.blogspot.com/2007/02/teddi-king-in-beginning-liner-notes-by.html

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