Teddy Bunn
b. c.1909, Freeport, Long Island, New York, USA, d. 20 July 1978. A remarkably gifted self-taught guitarist, Bunn freelanced for most of his life. Perhaps as a result of his never being long in one place, his achievements are often overlooked. He was an inventive soloist, skilfully weaving intriguing patterns from deceptively simple single lines. In this respect, he pre-dated Charlie Christian, whose arrival on the jazz scene effectively obliterated the efforts of every other guitarist. In Bunn's case this was unfortunate and his subsequent neglect is unfair. He switched from acoustic to electric guitar around 1940. Bunn was also a vocalist (he started out as a calypso singer) and this led him into an important musical collaboration with Leo Watson. Their group, the Spirits Of Rhythm, were one of the most original vocal outfits of the '30s and '40s. During this same period, Bunn played guitar with several leading blues and jazzmen, including Duke Ellington, John Kirby, Jimmy Noone, Bob Howard, Johnny Dodds, Oran ‘Hot Lips’ Page, Peetie Wheatstraw, Mezz Mezzrow, Sidney Bechet and Lionel Hampton. Bunn was able to move comfortably into R&B in the '50s, working with Jack McVea and Louis Jordan. By the end of the decade he had taken the extra step into rock ‘n’ roll. During the last decade of his life Bunn was in very poor health and worked only rarely.