All the music I've played has finally paid off, he said. The All Stars did well, but Teagarden left in 1951, in order to once again put together his own band. We said we would like to hear the guy, and Pee Wee said, right, lets just pop over and get him. Few people realize that Teagarden, known as Tea or simply T, lived his last years in South Florida. 78_somebody-loves-me_eddie-condon-and-his-orchestra-jack-teagarden-bobby-hackett-billy_gbia0195458b Location USA Scanner Internet Archive Python library 1.9.0 Scanningcenter George Blood, L.P. Sometimes there would be more teens at the meetings than older people.. He has a disposition as easy-going as the languid phrases he blows so often, and as sunny as the warm grin which cracks his face into scores of merry wrinkles. Like many jazzmen of the last era, his ups and downs were of the extreme kind, and success, both financial and popular, was all too often the unwilling bedfellow of failure. He was born Weldon Leo Teagarden in 1905 in the small town of Vernon, Texas. In 1949, the All-Stars traveled to Europe, where they did 65 concerts in 35 days. In 1939 Teagarden formed his own band; it was musically innovative but not financially successful and was disbanded in 1947. Jack Teagarden was a trombone player, singer, and band leader whose career spanned from the 1. I wanted to know how all those people could come to see this wonderful talent and then not want to sit in the same room with them.. His father, an amateur comet player, worked in the oilfields, and his mother was a local piano instructor and church organist. the tootler from Texas strode in. According to critic Scott Yannow of Allmusic, Teagarden was the preeminent American jazz trombone player before the bebop era of the 1940s and "one of the best jazz singers too". This is a Teagarden album like nothing else in his 40-year discography. As I said, the big depression was on, and I had just wangled a cozy WPA job for the best cymbalom player I ever heard. His brothers, Trumpeter Charlie and drummer Clois, have played on stand with him, off and on during the decades Jack has been blowing jazz. His father was an amateur brass band trumpeter and started him on baritone horn; by age seven he had switched to trombone. Mother Helen was a ragtime pianist. Nevertheless, it had been rather past due to be arranging a fresh orchestra (your competition was brutal) and, although there have been the right musical moments, non-e from the sidemen became popular, the preparations lacked their very own musical character, and by enough time it split up Teagarden was facing personal bankruptcy. By the time Teagarden landed jobs in New York, in the mid 20s, his reputation had preceded him. 1940. Jack Teagarden was the top jazz trombonist to emerge before World War II. "name" : "Jack Teagarden", Though he was extremely shy, he talked freely with her. It is in the favor of jazz fans of all schools. Although he once sang a blues line that testified he was born in Texas and raised in Tennessee. May 2-7. One such occasion was recounted by Jimmy McPartland in Hear Me Talkin to Ya, a book telling the story of jazz in the words of the musicians who live it. He teamed up with Louis Armstrongs All-Stars for some classic recordings in the late 1940s and formed the Jack Teagarden All Stars Dixieland band in 1951. Jack Teagarden was among the first white musicians to absorb and project the Negro blues tradition. Pee Wee introduced us. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Teagarden was born in Vernon, Texas, United States. Teagardens style is also often described using words such as lyrical, vocal, legato, relaxed, fluent and smooth. The September 1921 flood that brought death . He moved to Chappell, Nebraska, with his family in 1918, but by 1921 was back in Texas playing with Peck Kelleys Bad Boys. From that moment he was the acknowledged master of his idiom. Mr. Teagarden was mystified by the scholarship and arcane terminology that critics brought to bear on his work.Polyphony, flatted fifths, half tones, he once said, they don't mean a thing. Now she wants to create a Web site and write a book about him, before all those who knew him and heard him play are gone. [2], In the late 1920s, he recorded with such bandleaders and sidemen as Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Bix Beiderbecke, Red Nichols, Jimmy McPartland, Mezz Mezzrow, Glenn Miller, Eddie Condon, and Fats Waller. The cause of death was bronchial pneumonia, which had followed a liver ailment. By 1928 he played for the Ben Pollack band. His daring solos with Ben Pollack triggered Glenn Miller to de-emphasize his very own using the music group, and through the past due-20s/early Depression period, Mr. And wherever he is now, I hope the guy from Texas has a big sliphorn to make that noise that brings him peace. Mr. Teagarden had shorter arms than most trombone players and as a result did not use the swooping, thrusting style of many of his colleagues. Jack Teagarden. With abuse heaped upon him, Teagarden became the first white musician to travel on the road with an all-black band. In segregated America, their friends feared it would damage the two mens careers. Hit hard by both the war and the competition from bebop, several of the more famous big bands called it quits in 1946, and so did Teagarden. New Orleans-style trombonists tended to play in the lower range of the instrument, where it is simply impossible to change notes as quickly as a trumpet or clarinet does; entire arms cant move as fast as a single finger. There is a select inner circle whose musicianship has defied the censorship of shifting fashions, and through a special sort of genius created for themselves a vast, impressive symbol synonymous with their name and art. The song earned $22,000, Eddie swears, and Jack wouldnt take a dime. Looks like we don't have quotes information. His technique was almost entirely selftaught; until he was 14, his parents kept him isolated from other musicians and even from other children interested in music. What mattered was that Hack was a guy dedicated to the sound a hard-lipped genius can get out of a sliphorn. His story also epitomizes how music drilled through the racial barriers of the 40s and 50s, setting the tone for Americas integration movement. Teagarden is one of them. Looks like we don't have awards information. Her latest rescue efforts are Troy, a Rottweiler, and Laroux, a red Dobie. Jack Teagarden Is Dead at 58; Jazz Trombonist and Vocalist; Some Critics Considered Him a Genius His Technique Was Largely SelfTaught, https://www.nytimes.com/1964/01/16/archives/jack-teagarden-is-dead-at-58-jazz-trombonist-and-vocalist-some.html. It is also unlike the original since it is complete in itself and not an uncompleted half of something. It isnt only that I like to sing, but people come to the stand, wanting me to sing, but people come to the stand, wanting me to sing particular tunes. Later the same year (1921) Teagarden joined Peck Kelleys Bad Boys in Houston. It is for that kind of lyric and melodic beauty that we should listen to Jack Teagarden, because such are the standards he has set for himself. But Teagarden appears to have arrived in New York with a clear idea of how he wanted to sound, and although the three players do seem to have influenced each other somewhat, they each also retained their distinctive styles. [2] In 1946, Teagarden joined Louis Armstrong's All Stars. He was identified with such tunes as I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues, St. Size 10.0 Source 78 User_cleaned Bai Konte Johnson User_metadataentered Innodata User 02 User_transferred Jordan Gold The fact that jazz personalities share with Broadway, Hollywood, etc., a dependence upon the momentary enchantment of mass-minded America is an irony in itself, although perhaps one of the lesser ironies. He did so at a time when many jazz purists insisted that no one but a Negro could do justice to the blues. Jack began on piano at age group five (his mom Helen was a ragtime pianist), turned to baritone horn, and lastly used trombone when he was ten. It really avoided him from leading what would ultimately became the Bob Crosby Orchestra. Teagarden married Adeline Barriere Gault in September 1942; they had three children of their own and one foster child. An insurance agent and former Doberman breeder for 30 years, Atwell now trains abused dogs. She also worked with disadvantaged youth. For instance, Jack and crew jammed with the King of Cambodia who as clarinetist had jammed with his idol, Benny Goodman, when Benny had toured that area few years earlier. Teagarden? She nodded. So Jack sat back and ordered a second drink. He technique that still inspires awe even today. Jack took one look and busted out the back door. Ben Pollack invited him to join his orchestra in 1928, and that year Teagarden recorded the first of what would be scores of records,Just Roll Along. He is usually considered the most innovative jazz trombone stylist of the pre-bebop era Pee Wee Russell once called him "the best trombone player in the world". Unfortunately, this band also cannot really be considered a success. Upper register solos, the lack of a strict solo beat, and the use of lip trills were some of his characteristics. Looks like we don't have salary information. It was a steady, well-paying job, for which Teagarden was apparently grateful; he seems to have been perpetually unlucky with both women and money, and had already experienced some personal financial problems. Heand Adeline or Addie, became engaged before he was divorced, and she would eventually become his forth and final wife. He was also a remarkable singer, with a warm, Texas drawl that gave everything he sang a marvelous intimacy, and he never lost sight of the blues in everything he did. What he heardhelped shape his style. After Teagardens band failed, Bing Crosby brought him back to New York, and he eventually joined Louis Armstrongs All-Stars in 1946-47 as a featured soloist. Jazz fans are noted for their fanatical devotion to one jazz movement to the exclusion of all others. Teagarden was not a successful band leader, which may explain why he is not as widely known as some other jazz trombonists, but his unusual singing style . He died in a motel room only hours after playing his last set from a chair because he was too weak to stand. Weldon Leo "Jack" Teagarden (August 20, 1905 January 15, 1964)[1] was an American jazz trombonist and singer. Although has received no medals in this country yet; he has achieved a place of distinction in jazz shared by very few other musicians. Jack Teagarden was a trombone player, singer, and band leader whose career spanned from the 1920s territory and New York jazz scenes to shortly before his death in 1964. Pollack's recordings were Teagarden's first. He was 58, the wire story said, and he had run up a lot of mileage since the year he left Texas at 15. First is a delightful biographic sketch of Jack Teagarden written for the January, 1960 issue of International Musician Magazine. And Mom had to explain to me that they werent allowed in the room because they were black. One of the classic giants of jazz, Jack Teagarden was not only the top pre-bop trombonist (playing his instrument with the ease of a trumpeter) but one of the best jazz singers too. His singing is wry and gutty, and, again, has a naturally lazy sound. Trombonist, singer. Historians and critics widely agree: No one disputes Jack Teagardens place in the trombone pantheon(Morgenstern, 2004, p.292). In 1927, he went to New York City where he worked with several bands. His formal train- ing has been acquired on the job. Atwell, divorced and mother of four children, moved from California to join them. His father played trumpet, as did brother Charlie, while brother Clois played drums, and sister Norma played piano. This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jack-Teagarden, All About Jazz - Biography of Jack Teagarden, Texas State Historical Association - The Handbook of Texas Online - Biography of Weldon Leo Teagarden, Jack Teagarden - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up). NEW ORLEANS, Jan. 15 (AP) Jack Teagarden, the jazz trombonist and singer, died today in a New Orleans motel. Louis Armstrong and his band were my second family. A year or two later, drummer Cotton Bailey suggested that Weldon was not a suitable name for a musician and started calling him Jack. Besides his brother Charlie. In 1918, after his fathers death, the family moved to Chappell, Nebraska, where he and his mother again worked in the local theater. Jack said, Meet me after the last show in the cafe next door and we will go see the town. So I sat around until Jack and the boys earned their money and along about 11:15p.m. Would sure like to hear you play.Solo StuffThe guy says, All right, gets his horn out, puts it together and blows couple of warm-up notes and starts to play Diane. Teagarden was buried in California. When in 1951 he left Armstrong and with his wife Addie, who became business manager, formed the sextet, he had settled into the life of a responsible jazz musician and family man with Addie and Joe Teagarden, his newborn son. No accompanist, just neat. Anyone can read what you share. He was also among the first white jazz musicians to record with black players. Reset your passwordClick the eye to show your password. Teagarden's early career was as a sideman with the likes of Paul Whiteman and lifelong friend Louis Armstrong. His mother gave him early piano lessons, and his father, a bit of a musician himself, presented Jack with a trombone on his seventh Christmas. His fans ran the gamut from Louis Armstrong to Thelonious Monk. My sources disagree concerning which band brought Teagarden to New York, and with whom he made his earliest recording, but there is agreement that he arrived in New York in 1927 and was playing with Ben Pollacks orchestra by 1928. Instrument: Trombone And what do you know? To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. Teagarden later recorded with many of Americas jazz greats including Red Nichols, Benny Goodman, and Louis Armstrong. RARE OLDIES SOUNDIES WITH MR JACK TEAGARDEN & HIS ALL STARS !!! James Infirmary (1947, with Louis Armstrong). Jack Teagarden. Born on Aug. 29, 1905, Teagarden learned trombone by the age of 10. He punched his solos with the brashness of a trumpet, a critic wrote some years ago, substituting for glides a series of triplets or runs designed to treat each note in the tonal scale as an entity. 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