Teddy Brown

About

Teddy Brown (born Abraham Ted Himmelbrand, New York, May 25, 1900 – Birmingham, England, April 30, 1946) was an American entertainer and musician who spent the latter part of his life performing in Britain. His main musical instrument was the xylophone.

Brown was the son of David and Anne Weisberg, brother of Jacob (b. 1895) and Herman (b. 1898).
He first played in the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, but he moved to the field of popular music in the late 1910s. Between 1917 and 1919, Brown played xylophone and marimba with Earl Fuller’s Rector Novelty Orchestra, whose recordings prominently feature his playing. At a performance with Fuller’s orchestra at the Brunswick Hotel in Lancaster, New York, Brown was introduced as the leading marimba soloist of the world; he played four-mallet arrangements on a Deagan Marimba-Xylophone No. 4726 accompanied by the 18-piece band. This performance inspired xylophonist Clair Omar Musser (1901-1998) to study with Brown’s former teacher and became a marimba virtuoso. Brown was a percussionist for a time with Julius Lenzberg’s Riverside Theatre Orchestra, and his later recordings were xylophone solos with Lenzberg’s band on Edison…