Biography
Jazz pianist Ted was a native of Boston, MA.
Ted had a fascination for sound from infancy. His Uncle Oly introduced him both to jazz and to baseball. As a youngster, Ted listened to every jazz album he could find, attended many jazz concerts, and quickly found among his favorites were great such as Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, Louis Armstrong, Oscar Peterson, George Shearing, Dave Brubeck, and Bill Evans.
Ted studying piano in his tender teens with Harry Smith, one of the legendary founders of the Berklee School of Music. Ted’s natural persistence and relentless fascination with developing his craft dominated his life. He soon became not only a student at Berklee but a professor of piano arranging, theory, and improvisation — all before reaching the age of 24.
After a two-year stint as a pianist in the Army, Ted took a gig at one of Boston’s leading live entertainment venues, The Surf Supper Club where he soon became a bandleader playing and conducting for some of the biggest acts of the time. It was at the Surf that Howe honed his craft in arranging — a strong point that to this day sets him aside from other gifted pianists.
Howe has shared the stage with many of the great jazz artists and entertainers of the day and he continued building relationships with performers who called on his services each time they came to town, such as Mel Torme — who refused to sing with anyone else on his visits to Atlanta. Howe also joined the faculty of Georgia State University where he assisted in developing its first jazz education program.
Media
