Teddy Reig
| Teddy Reig | |
|---|---|
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Theodore Samuel Reig |
| Born |
November 23, 1918 New York, New York, U.S. |
| Died | September 29, 1984 (aged 65) Teaneck, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Genres | Jazz, R&B, Latin |
| Occupation(s) | Record producer, record company executive, A&R director |
| Years active | 1945–1975 |
| Labels | Savoy, Roost, Roulette, Verve |
| Associated acts | Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie, Sarah Vaughan, Don Byas, Erroll Garner, Dexter Gordon, J.J. Johnson, Lester Young, Bud Powell, Quincy Jones, Sonny Stitt, Maynard Ferguson, Paul Williams, Billy Eckstine, Count Basie, Harry "Sweets" Edison, others |
Theodore Samuel "Teddy" Reig (November 23, 1918 – September 29, 1984) was a self-described "jazz hustler" who worked as a record producer, A&R man, promoter, and artist manager from the 1940s through the 1970s. As a record producer, he captured the work of dozens of legendary jazz innovators. He also influenced rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and Latin music.
He was born on 110th Street, in Harlem, and attended New Utrecht High School, in Brooklyn. After leaving school without a diploma, he began hanging out at New York ballrooms, jazz clubs, and music hot spots, ingratiating himself with musicians, managers, and impresarios. In his early 20s he served nine months in a Kentucky jail for narcotics possession.
Jazz historian David Ritz profiled Reig as "a three-hundred-pound-plus, six-foot Jewish promoter born in Harlem …, raised among the thieves and geniuses of the jazz world, [and] an impassioned fan who mastered the art of networking at an early age." Another historian, Patrick Burke, wrote that Reig "initially earned his club-going money with schemes such as selling worn-out records that had been doctored with shoe polish to look brand new." In 1945 Reig produced the first recordings led by legendary bebop saxophonist Charlie Parker. "Had he done nothing else," said Reig biographer Edward Berger, "this accomplishment alone would have ensured his place in history. But he continued to document the development of the new music through his work with a whole range of seminal artists."
Reig produced the first recordings by Miles Davis and Stan Getz. He also produced recordings by Dizzy Gillespie, Sarah Vaughan, Don Byas, Erroll Garner, Dexter Gordon, J.J. Johnson, Lester Young, Bud Powell, Quincy Jones, Sonny Stitt, Maynard Ferguson, and countless others. "There is no question that much of this wonderful jazz would have gone unpreserved had not Reig interrupted his small-time 52nd Street hustles to become an artful bridge between musicians and the money men needed to seed a recording session," wrote jazz columnist Nels Nelson.
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