Teddy Napoleon

George Teddy Napoleon (* as George Napoli 23 January, 1914 in Brooklyn, † July 5, 1964 in Elmhurst, New Jersey) was an American pianist of the swing.

Napoleon was a nephew of trumpeter Phil Napoleon and the older brother of the pianist Marty Napoleon. In 1933 he made ​​his debut with Lee Castle ( Castaldo ) in a Chinese restaurant and then worked for three years with the band Tommy Tompkins. After that, he was a freelancer in New York and played in clubs of 52nd Street with the Sande Society Williams band. He played with the big bands of Johnny Messner and Bob Chester and was from 1944 in the orchestra of Gene Krupa. He stayed with Krupa intermittently until 1958, and played with him in the trios, for example, in the 1940s, with Charlie Ventura and on the Jazz at the Philharmonic concerts. In 1952 he went with the trio of Krupa to Japan and Sweden and 1954 in Australia. In 1955 he played with his brother Marty.

In addition, he also played with Flip Phillips, Bill Harris and Eddie Shu. In 1959, he moved to Florida (North Miami), where he led his own trio and also played with Phillips and Harris. Besides Krupa he took, among others, Sam Donahue, Lionel Hampton, Mel Tormé, Neal Hefti, but never under his own name. After Scott Yanow was his main influence Teddy Wilson, Napoleon himself was Oscar Peterson as a model.