Ted Dunbar


Earl Theodore Dunbar was an American jazz guitarist, composer, and educator.

Career

Born in Port Arthur, Texas, Dunbar trained as a pharmacist at Texas Southern University, but by the 1970s he only did pharmacy work part-time. He was also a trained numerologist and studied other aspects of mysticism. He became interested in jazz at the age of seven. During the 1950s, he joined several groups while studying pharmacy at Texas Southern University.
During the 1960s, he worked as a substitute for Wes Montgomery. Dunbar collaborated with Gil Evans, Roy Haynes, Jimmy Heath, Sonny Rollins, McCoy Tyner, and Tony Williams. In 1972 he became one of the first jazz professors at Rutgers University and taught Kevin Eubanks, Vernon Reid, and Peter Bernstein. At one point he received accolades from Ebony and Down Beat.
He wrote a series of books on tonal convergence that are inspired and related to the Lydian chromatic concept. The centerpiece of this series is entitled A System of Tonal Convergence for Improvisors Composers and Arrangers.
Dunbar died of a stroke in 1998.

Discography

As leader

With Frank Foster
With others