Teddy Weatherford

Who was Teddy Weatherford?

Teddy Weatherford was a jazz pianist, an accomplished stride pianist.

Weatherford was born in Pocahontas, Virginia and was raised in neighboring Bluefield, West Virginia. From 1915 through 1920 he lived in New Orleans, Louisiana, where he learned to play jazz piano. He then moved to Chicago, Illinois, where he worked with such bands as that of Erskine Tate through the 1920s and with such jazz notables as Louis Armstrong and Johnny Dodds and impressed the young Earl Hines.

Weatherford then traveled, first to Amsterdam, then around Asia playing professionally. In the early 1930s he led a band at the Taj Mahal Hotel in Bombay, India He joined Cricket Smith's band in Jakarta, Indonesia. Weatherford took over leadership of Smith's band in Ceylon in 1937.

During World War II, he led a band in Calcutta, where he made radio broadcasts for the U. S. Armed Forces Radio Service. Performers with Weatherford's band included Bridget Althea Moe, Jimmy Witherspoon, Roy Butler and Gery Scott. Teddy Weatherford died of cholera in Calcutta, aged 41.