The Independent Voice of Southern Methodist University Since 1915

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The Independent Voice of Southern Methodist University Since 1915

The Daily Campus

The Independent Voice of Southern Methodist University Since 1915

The Daily Campus

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Grad student rediscovers roots through thesis project

Redmond+and+her+jazz+legend+grandfather+Teddy+Hill.+
Courtesy of Michelle Redmond
Redmond and her jazz legend grandfather Teddy Hill.

Redmond and her jazz legend grandfather Teddy Hill. (Courtesy of Michelle Redmond)

He was an “August Santa Claus” who visited her Cleveland home every summer. It was always in August. It was always for five days, no more no less.

To Michelle Redmond, he was Grandfather Teddy, and he was everything.

“I was literally the focus of his attention the whole week he was there,” she said. “He would put the top down on his big Cadillac and we would drive around getting hamburgers and chocolate shakes.”

When she was a child, Michelle did not know much about her grandfather’s life in New York.

But to men named Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Christian and Thelonious Monk, he was Teddy Hill – the manager of New York’s famous Minton’s Playhouse. He was the man behind Mondays at Minton’s.

“By being a musician, he just knew how to talk the talk and walk the walk for musicians,” she said. “The philosophy of my grandfather was, ‘Get up on the bandstand, but, baby, you better not stink.'”

Redmond is getting her MFA in Film and Media Arts from SMU. At first, she was hesitant to make her thesis film about her grandfather, Minton’s and the musical movement he helped foster.

“It just felt like a tremendous responsibility and I just loved him so much that I didn’t want to disappoint,” she said.

The Cleveland native came to Dallas in 1979 and found work at PBS. She went on to travel the country as a producer and writer. In 2008, she returned home to Dallas to stay.

Redmond’s film about Minton’s started with a PowerPoint created, primarily to fill a class requirement. But the reaction to the 11-minute presentation about her grandfather and the nightclub he managed planted a seed in her mind. 

After an encouraging meeting with resident jazzman and dean of Meadows School of the Arts Jose Bowen, she decided to go for it. Bowen has played the piano for 40 years.

“Teddy Hill is an important figure in the history of jazz, and not just her grandpa. This story needs to be told,” he said.

She hopes to shoot as much as possible during the summer and hopefully to present in November. To help her raise the money, Redmond has taken to Indiegogo and Kickstarter, two popular fundraising websites. She now has raised just under $2,000 of her $13,000 goal.

Born in 1909 in Birmingham, Ala. Hill was a big band leader until Henry Minton hired him in 1940 as the manager of Minton’s Playhouse. He left the club in 1969. But before he left, he helped to create a place where musicians could play, experiment and innovate. Hill passed away in Cleveland in 1978.

There is no question that Teddy Hill was instrumental in a movement. Bebop.

“That led to this whole incubator. Arguably, Minton’s birthed a musical movement in one room and that was bebop,” Redmond said. “Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, my grandfather’s best friend Charlie Christian and others, came to Minton’s to just hang out and play.”

Bowen believes that Bebop might not have existed without Hill.

“Teddy Hill was a musician who also ran a club, where he let musicians experiment and play what they wanted. Everyone wanted to hang out at Mintons”, he said. “Miles Davis would cut class at Juilliard to go up to Harlem and hang out there. It was very important for the history of jazz.”

Dr. Craig Flournoy, a journalism professor at SMU, first experienced bebop while living in New Orleans. A friend took him to a jazz club where many of the musicians were playing bebop.

“The musicians played bebop with long solos that would begin slow and pick up speed as each one improvised his version of the song,” he said.

Flournoy described bebop as, “Music that asks you to throw off your clothes (metaphorically speaking) and is rhythmic and rocking in a way no big band sound could ever hope to emulate.”

The impact of this jazz movement was not only felt in music.

“It had a tremendous influence on Beat Generation novelists like Jack Kerouac and poets such as Allen Ginsberg,” Flournoy said. “[Kerouac] and his contemporaries were looking for something new and unconventional, a style that was less rigid and more spontaneous. Bebop and jazz were perfect because while they provided a structure, they emphasized improvisation based on spontaneity.”

These musicians, who hammered thunder and lightning out of brass and ivory, still inspire. Redmond is fascinated by the impact of her grandfather and the other legends he nurtured.

“It’s amazing the longevity. They never imagined they’d be legends. They were just struggling to get to the next gig.”

and the nightclub he managed planted a seed in her mind.

After an encouraging meeting with resident jazzman and Dean of Meadows School of the Arts Jose Bowen, she decided to go for it. Bowen has played the piano for 40 years.

“Teddy Hill is an important figure in the history of jazz, and not just her grandpa. This story needs to be told,” he said.

She hopes to shoot as much as possible during the summer and hopefully to present in November. To help her raise the money, Redmond has taken to Indiegogo and Kickstarter, two popular fundraising websites. She now has raised just under $2,000 of her $13,000 goal.

Born in 1909 in Birmingham, Ala. Hill was a big band leader until Henry Minton hired him in 1940 as the manager of Minton’s Playhouse. He left the club in 1969. But before he left, he helped to create a place where musicians could play, experiment and innovate. Hill passed away in Cleveland in 1978.

There is no question that Teddy Hill was instrumental in a movement known as bebop.

“That led to this whole incubator. Arguably, Minton’s birthed a musical movement in one room and that was bebop,” Redmond said. “Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, my grandfather’s best friend Charlie Christian and others, came to Minton’s to just hang out and play.”

Bowen believes that Bebop might not have existed without Hill.

“Teddy Hill was a musician who also ran a club, where he let musicians experiment and play what they wanted. Everyone wanted to hang out at
Mintons”, he said. “Miles Davis would cut class at Juilliard to go up to Harlem and hang out there. It was very important for the history of jazz.”

Craig Flournoy, who holds a doctorate in journalism, first experienced bebop while living in New Orleans. A friend took him to a jazz club where many of the musicians were playing bebop.

“The musicians played bebop with long solos that would begin slow and pick up speed as each one improvised his version of the song,” Flournoy said.

He described bebop as, “Music that asks you to throw off your clothes (metaphorically speaking) and is rhythmic and rocking in a way no big band sound could ever hope to emulate.”

The impact of this jazz movement was not only felt in music.

“It had a tremendous influence on Beat Generation novelists like Jack Kerouac and poets such as Allen Ginsberg,” Flournoy said. “[Kerouac] and his contemporaries were looking for something new and unconventional, a style that was less rigid and more spontaneous. Bebop and jazz were perfect because while they provided a structure, they emphasized improvisation based on spontaneity.”

These musicians, who hammered thunder and lightning out of brass and ivory, still inspire. Redmond is fascinated by the impact of her grandfather and the other legends he nurtured.

“It’s amazing the longevity. They never imagined they’d be legends. They were just struggling to get to the next gig.” 

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