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Cody Brown
After graduation, Dunbar got a job at Hook’s Drug Store in Indianapolis, Indiana.
By this time he was married and had a daughter, and the family moved from Texas
to Indiana. It was in Indianapolis where he first heard popular jazz guitarist Wes
Montgomery perform, and this played a role in Dunbar’s decision to relocate there.
Montgomery became a major influence on Dunbar’s own style of jazz guitar, which
included his “soft” approach using his thumb rather than a pick. Montgomery
mentored Dunbar and occasionally asked the younger musician to fill in for him
when Montgomery was on tour. While living in Indianapolis, Dunbar also studied
with Dave Baker, from whom he learned to play modal jazz.
In 1966 Dunbar moved to New York City. He still worked at a pharmacy but played
jazz at night and on weekends in various orchestras and on studio recordings. He
appeared on numerous artists’ records, including Gloria Coleman, David “Fathead”
Newman, Gil Evans, Lou Donaldson, Frank Foster, Charles Mingus, Tony
Williams’s Lifetime, Sonny Rollins, McCoy Tyner, and Ron Carter, to name a few.
Dunbar also played guitar in Billy Taylor’s Jazzmobile Project, the New Jazz
Repertory Company, and the National Jazz Ensemble. While teaching in the
Jazzmobile Workshop Project, Dunbar’s students included Kevin Eubanks, leader
for many years of the house band for The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Dunbar also
taught Rodney Jones, a guitarist for the house band on The Rosie O’Donnell Show.
Dunbar also recorded twenty-five original compositions under his own name for the
Xanadu and Muse record labels. Among his albums as bandleader were Opening
Remarks (1978), Jazz Guitarist (1982), and Gentle Time Alone (1994). Most notable
among these is Dunbar’s 1982 record, Jazz Guitarist, which simply included Dunbar
on guitar performing complex piano arrangements. Dunbar was the recipient of
Downbeat Magazine’s Outstanding Guitarist Award, and he was nominated for
Ebony Magazine’s Black Music Poll of Outstanding Musicians. He continued to
teach at Rutgers Institute of Jazz Studies until 1998, when he died of a stroke on
May 29, 1998, in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Ted Dunbar was survived by
daughters, Anita Kelly of Plano, Texas, and Natalie Dunbar of Pasadena, California,
as well as seven grandchildren and a great-grandchild. He is one of the music
legends featured in his native Port Arthur’s Museum of the Gulf Coast Music Hall
of Fame (/handbook/online/articles/lbg03) .
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
All Music Guide (www.allmusic.com), accessed February 16, 2011. Todd Collins
and Michael Fitzgerald, comps., “Ted Dunbar Discography” (1993),
JazzDiscography.com (http://www.jazzdiscography.com/Artists/Dunbar/index.html),
accessed February 16, 2011. Museum of the Gulf Coast: Ted Dunbar
(http://www.museumofthegulfcoast.org/personalities-music-legends-ted-
dunbar.html), accessed October 10, 2010. New York Times, June 6, 1998. Larry
Ridley, “Re: Ted Dunbar (October issue, no. 42, p.11),” AllAboutJazz.com
(http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=19932), accessed February 16,
2011.
What (#)
The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the
preferred citation for this article.