Teddy Wilson Talks Jazz

In his varied and colorful life, Teddy Wilson worked with innumerable great names of jazz. He came to fame in the small groups led by Benny Goodman, and also through his remarkable series of recordings with the singer Billie Holiday. During the mid-1970s, Wilson recorded and toured often in Europe, and during these visits he was frequently teamed with the Dutch Swing College Band. The band’s guitarist Arie Ligthart and Anglo-Dutch publicist and author Humphrey van Loo took the opportunity of these visits to work with Wilson on a full-length autobiography, which has lain unpublished during the years since Wilson’s death in 1986. Teddy Wilson Talks Jazz is a candid account of Wilson’s life and career, from his childhood through to his association with the critic and producer John Hammond, and on to his associations with Goodman, Holiday, his own bands and fellow pianists such as Earl Hines and Art Tatum. Highlights in this very personal view of a life in music include recollections of Al Capone, his respect for jazz pioneers such as Jelly Roll Morton, his account of the organization behind Billie Holiday’s recording career, his recordings with Lester Young, and his 1962 trip to Russia, as well as his insider’s account of working with Benny Goodman.