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Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular MusicA B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZKING, Teddi(b 18 Sep. '29, Boston MA; d 18 Nov. '77) Singer. Probably influenced by Lee Wiley and Mildred Bailey, she later fell under the spell of Mabel Mercer, but was always her own woman. First recorded with Nat Pierce in Boston '49; then tracks with Beryl Booker's trio c'53 and with small jazz groups '54-5, all once available on three Storyville LPs, and an album for Coral c'53 with a Dick Jacobs Orchestra. She toured with George Shearing for two years. Managed by George Wein until he got too busy, she went the Las Vegas route with another manager; signed by RCA, she made an album '56 with a first-rate jazz band (Joe Newman, Al Cohn, Hank Jones etc) and two with more conventional studio backing. Tracks not on albums charted as singles: 'Mr Wonderful' (from the hit show) was top 20 '56; 'Married I Can Always Get' and 'Say It Isn't So' made the Hot 100 '57-8. She was unhappy with stardom because it was too far from jazz. She opened the Playboy club in NYC and often worked there in the '60s. She developed systemic lupus erythematosus, a degenerative disease that attacks more women than men; on the mend for a while, she worked on Cape Cod with pianist Dave McKenna; in the last couple of years of her life she made an album with McKenna on Inner City, and two albums now on Audiophile, Lovers And Losers and Someone To Light Up Your Life, both with the Loonis McGlohon Trio and produced by George Buck, who has done a great deal to preserve some of the best mainstream American music (see entry for Jazzology). Teddi King did some exquisite ballad singing of good songs on RCA, and those tracks should be on CD. |