Charles is perhaps unique in the distinction of combining the roles of jazz performer and running a successful sailing and nautical salvage business. He worked rather anonymously in various big bands before leading small groups of his own, from 1952. He left a tantalizingly brief group of recordings: a trio set for Prestige; a small-group date, New Directions, which featured himself and Shorty Rogers improvising in ways which toyed with free settings but resolved back to a chord sequence; and two amazing sessions for Atlantic, The Word From Bird and The Teddy Charles Tentet (both 1956), which featured his ten-piece group working through a daring group of scores by George Russell, Jimmy Giuffre, Gil Evans and Charles himself. While his own music set up a challenging interface between scored music and improvisation, he also played with Charles Mingus and acted as a producer at Bethlehem, where he was involved in some 40 albums. All this faded disappointingly away, though, when he decided to concentrate on his sailing business, which he eventually shifted to New York, from where he played very occasional gigs. As a performer, Charles was no more than a competent improviser, but his interest in more challenging music and sponsorship of a small gathering of remarkable charts left a tiny, permanent mark on his time.

Biography from Richard Cook's Jazz Encyclopedia (2005).

If you'd like more information, check out The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz (2002) or The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz (2007), both of which are still in print.