Teddy Buckner, a Trumpeter, was a Louis Armstrong fan. His passion for New Orleans-style jazz and swing led him to more than 60 countries over his career. The St. Louis-based Buckner family, which produced Milt, George, and Ted Buckner, was his distant relative. John Edward “Teddy” Buckner, born July 16, 1909, in Sherman, Texas, north of Dallas. Buckner lived five years in Silver City, NM as a child. He learned to play the ukulele and drumsticks from his uncle. He also studied trumpet with Harold Scott who was a member the brass section of the Louis Armstrong Orchestra. Buckner was just 15 years old when he began working with Buddy Garcia and the “Big Six” Reeves bandleaders. He then traveled to Los Angeles, where he played his trumpet in ensembles that included Sylvester Scott and Speed Webb. In 1934, Buck Clayton, a trumpeter, assumed the leadership of the orchestra that had been led by Earl Dancer. Teddy Weatherford, a pianist, arranged for Buckner’s 14-piece band to sail for Shanghai, China, where they would spend a long residency at the Canidrome Ballroom. Buckner returned to California within a year and was already working with Irwin C. Miller’s Brownskin Models Revue, an organization that would play a significant role in R.
