Teddy Hill

(From left) Thelonious Monk, Howard McGhee, Roy Eldridge, Teddy Hill, Minton's Playhouse, New York, N.Y., ca. September 1947 Photograph by William P. Gottlieb.

Teddy Hill (December 7, 1909 in Birmingham, Alabama – May 19, 1978 in Cleveland, Ohio) was an American big band leader and the manager of Minton's Playhouse, a seminal jazz club in Harlem. He played a variety of instruments, including drums, clarinet, soprano and tenor saxophone.

Life and career After moving to New York City, Hill had early gigs with the Whitman Sisters, George Howe and Luis Russell's orchestra in the 1920s, Hill's band played at the Savoy Ballroom regularly, and toured England and France in the summer of 1937. "(Lookie, Lookie, Lookie) Here Comes Cookie" "Got Me Doin' Things" "When The Robin Sings His Song Again" "When Love Knocks At Your Heart"

1936: Teddy Hill And His Orchestra (Shad Collins, Bill Dillard, Frank Newton, Dicky Wells, Russell Procope, Howard Johnson, Teddy Hill, Kenneth Hollon - later replaced by Cecil Scott, Sam Allen, John Smith, Richard Fullbright, Bill Beason): "Uptown Rhapsody" "Christopher Columbus" "Passionette" "At the Rug Cutters' Ball"

1937: Teddy Hill And His NBC Orchestra (Shad Collins, Frank Newton, Bill Dillard, Dicky Wells, Russell Procope, Cecil Scott, Howard Johnson, Teddy Hill, Sam Allen, John Smith, Richard Fullbright, Bill Beason, Beatrice Douglas): "The Love Bug Will Bite You" "Would You Like To Buy A Dream" "Big Boy Blue" "Where Is The Sun" "The Harlem Twister (The New Sensation)" "My Marie" "I Know Now" "The Lady Who Couldn't Be Kissed" "(Have You Forgotten) The You And Me That Used To Be" "A Study in Brown" "Twilight in Turkey" "China Boy"

1937: Teddy Hill And His Orchestra (Shad Collins, Dizzy Gillespie, Bill Dillard, Dicky Wells, Russell Procope, Howard Johnson, Robert Carroll, Teddy Hill, Sam Allen, John Smith, Richard Fullbright, Bill Beason): "San Anton'" "I'm Happy, Darling, Dancing With You" "Yours And Mine" "I'm Feeling Like A Million" "King Porter Stomp" "Blue Rhythm Fantasy" (Included in The Complete RCA Victor Recordings, among others)