Teddy Charles
American jazz musician and composer (1928–2012)
Teddy Charles, born Theodore Charles Cohen (April 13, 1928 – April 16, 2012) was an American jazz musician and composer, whose instruments were the vibraphone, piano, and drums.
Career
Born Theodore Charles Cohen in Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts, United States, he studied at the Juilliard School of Music as a percussionist. Later he began to record and made personal appearances as Teddy Cohen with bands as a vibraphonist, writing, arranging, and producing records. In 1951, he changed his last name to Charles.
Charles was one of many jazz musicians who hung out at an apartment building at 821 Sixth Avenue, in New York City, known as the Jazz Loft rented by photographer and artist David X. Young, who in turn sublet two apartments to Hall Overton (Charles's mentor) and Dick Cary.
Known as an innovator, Charles's main work was recorded in the 1950s, with polytonal albums such as New Directions, Collaboration: West, Word from Bird, and The Teddy Charles Tentet. He was a studio musician for Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, Shelly Manne, and Dion. From the mid-1950s onwards, Charles worked primarily as a record producer. He was also a co-leader of the Prestige Jazz Quartet. He recorded an album, Live at the Verona Jazz Festival, for Soul Note in 1988.
The public source identifies “Teddy Charles” as american jazz musician and composer (1928–2012). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Teddy, Charles and American.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q346768. VIAF identifies the subject as 29722722. The Library of Congress control number is n91051276. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1928, 2012, 1951 and 1988.
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This entry incorporates text from “Teddy Charles” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.