Theodore Carpenter

Who is Theodore Carpenter?

Theodore "Wingie" Carpenter was a jazz trumpet player, singer, and band leader active from the 1920s through the 1960s.

Carpenter lost his left arm as the result of an accident during his early teens, with the amputation performed by a noted surgeon who was an uncle of jazz musician Doc Cheatham. Sometime later, he took up the trumpet and by 1920 he was working in traveling carnival shows, and in 1921 he toured with Herbert's Minstrel Band. He was one of several one-armed trumpeters who worked in the music business, including similarly nicknamed Wingy Manone.

By 1926 he had settled in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he worked with Wes Helvey, Clarence Paige, Zack Whyte, and Speed Webb. In 1927, he played in Buffalo, New York, with Eugene Primus. Off and on from late 1926 through 1928, he was featured on the Whitman Sisters' Show with pianist Troy Snapp's band.

During the early 1930s, Carpenter was featured with Smiling Boy Steward's Celery City Serenaders and another Florida band led by Bill Lacey. In the mid-1930s, he began regular touring with bandleaders including Jack Ellis, Dick Bunch, and Jesse Stone. In the late 1930s, he settled in New York City, where he worked with Skeets Tolbert and Fitz Weston.