Jack Teagarden began playing piano at age five, took up baritone at age seven or eight, and had settled on trombone by age ten. Being a friend and not a snoop I never dug into Jacks personal affairs so I do not know whether he stayed married very long to that cute little blond girl or not. An insurance agent and former Doberman breeder for 30 years, Atwell now trains abused dogs. Four trombones wailed their lament at the funeral. 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. Yet much as people like the easy-going Big T, they like even more the music that, hour after hour, pours languid, unaffected, strangely absorbed, andsometimeslonesome and full of plain earthy sadness, into a thousand city nights.. . Photo by Emily Michot / Herald Staff. Visiting band leader Paul Whiteman heard the group there and offered Teagarden a position in his New York orchestra. The trip covered a grueling eighteen weeks and as many countries. He performed with Eddie Condon, Bix Beiderbecke, Paul Whiteman, Jimmy Dorsey, Tommy Dorsey, Bob Crosby, Eddie Lang, and many others. His is an open face, with character, rather than age or weariness or boredom etched into it. Hes that kind of person genuine-and unashamedly sentimental. Size 10.0 Source 78 User_cleaned Bai Konte Johnson User_metadataentered Innodata User 02 User_transferred Jordan Gold Even at the earliest stages of his career, he exhibited an extraordinarily elastic and modern technical facility with his lips and slide. One of the most remarkably consistent performers in jazz history, Jack Teagarden never played less than flawlessly and, when in the right company, frequently set standards for creativity and instrumental brilliance that to this day remain beyond the grasp of most. The ease with which Jack pumps out the smooth overall line of the chorus as well as the occasional disagreeing spurts of melody, is still a revelation in the art trombone playing. The Teagarden brothers (Jack and trumpeter Charlie) are generally considered the only interesting jazzmen to have been part of it, and yet Jack also felt a little out of the limelight. Jack Teagarden was a trombone player, singer, and band leader whose career spanned from the 1920's territory and New York jazz scenes to shortly before his death in 1964. At various times in teagardens career, his siblings played in the same band. Leave a comment. Teagarden left Pollack in 1933, and signed a five-year contract with Paul Whitemans orchestra. Jazz critic Martin Williams recently flipped in print over a solo passage Teagarden played on a concert recording made well over ten years ago. Out of this, its surmised, he drew his earliest feeling for the blues. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Louis Armstrong, himself in poor health, was so grief-stricken at Teagardens death, Atwell says, that his doctors forced him to bed and wouldnt allow him to attend the funeral. In what the documentary calls one of the most important jazz recordings ever made, Teagarden and Armstrong ignored the advice of friends in 1929 and joined together to makeKnockin A Jug. From 1947 to 1951 he toured with the Louis With their eyes, their movements, their notes, each inspires the other to sound new depths, to scale new heights. Teagarden appeared in the movies Birth of the Blues (1941), The Glass Wall (1953), and Jazz on a Summers Day (1959). Sorry! I tried to get him on the WPA symphony where he deserved to be but the stinking little bureaucrat who directed the symphony refused to recognize the cymbalom as a civilized instrument. That alone is well worth a chest full of medals. 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". He was also a great jazz singer, charming and warm, with influences from the African American blues singers he listened to while growing up in Texas. From a jazz-oriented family. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. What he heardhelped shape his style. Upper register solos, the lack of a strict solo beat, and the use of lip trills were some of his characteristics. Later, searching for style and a kind of watering spa for his ideas, he drew from the blues a source of depth that makes his brand of Dixieland distinctiveand clearly divided from any other. And as he drove along another car hit him from the rear. His unusual approach to trombone playing had both a technical and a stylistic component. While still in I feel that I did some good for America.. He said back in May of 1939 he was driving home from NBC after plugging a song he wrote, You Know, Just As Well As I Know.. Atwell and her younger brother, Joe, have hired an attorney to try to claim the rights to, and royalties from, all the dozens and dozens of recordings of their father, plus recorded radio broadcasts and six films he made. At sixteen Teagarden first played the trombone professionally, at a concert near San Antonio as a member of Cotton Baileys dance and jazz band. His siblings also became professional musicians: his younger sister Norma played piano, his younger brother Charlie, trumpet, and his brother Clois (Cub), drums. He briefly visited a hospital then was found dead in his room at the Prince Monti Motel in New Orleans on January 15. Teagardens first vocal recording was made with Condon, and also the first recording featuring his use of a water glass as a mute. Jack Teagarden, Soundtrack: Reminiscence. Charlie is still active with a band in Las Vegas. 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 took up the baritone horn for a time but switched to trombone when he was seven. This was the period when everybody who was anybody in jazz had their own band, so Jack Teagarden decided to organize his first band in 1939. The All Stars did well, but Teagarden left in 1951, in order to once again put together his own band. JP Jazz Archive /Redferns. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. He originally planned to join Whitemans ensemble but happened to hear Ben Pollacks band first. [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. I gotta keep moving., So we grabbed a taxi and rode over to a shoddy little cabaret. Teagarden particularly made some noteworthy contributions while working at this time with Eddie Condon. Although playing his horn and leading his group occupy most of Teagardens waking hours, he manages to find time for his family wife Addie and his son Joe and for his puttering and tinkering. It is also unlike the original since it is complete in itself and not an uncompleted half of something. Though he was extremely shy, he talked freely with her. Your email address will not be published. Teagarden is one of them. 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. 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. He told endless stories about a Texas piano player named Peck Kelley, and although almost no one else in jazz ever heard him play, Mr. Kelley became a legend. While America struggled through the depression, Teagarden gained financial success by joining the Paul Whiteman band in 1933. After drifting across the Southwest, he eventually arrived in New York City in 1927 and made his recording debut. 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. Weldon Leo "Jack" Teagarden (August 20, 1905 January 15, 1964)[1] was an American jazz trombonist and singer. This has a practical effect on trombone playing: in the lower register of the instrument, there are fewer notes in any given position, and often only one position in which a note can be played. The All Stars toured Europe and Asia in 1957-59 as part of a government-sponsored goodwill tour. He played the last six weeks of the tour with a serious hernia, but refused to undergo surgery until the commitments had been filled and all his dates had been played. Jack Teagardens playing style was lyrical and seemingly effortless. He had been playing baritone and trombone for nine years in his school band when at age 16 he walked into the club where Peck Kelley, the pianist, was rehearsing his band. Teagardens gently-articulated style gives the trombone a lyrical, almost vocal quality (without having the extremely sweet ballad-type sound that, for example, Tommy Dorsey made famous) and has in fact been compared to his own (Teagardens) singing style. Jack Teagarden, byname of John Weldon Teagarden, (born August 20, 1905, Vernon, Texas, U.S.died January 15, 1964, New Orleans, Louisiana), American jazz trombonist, unique because he developed a widely imitated style that appeared to have arrived fully formed. I promised my wife a mink coat six months ago, before I hit the road. Teagarden has appeared in movies, has sung on the air and on TV, and has recorded actually thousands of sides. They belong to him not because he had a hand in writing them (he didnt) but because he pops in mind as the singer whenever these tunes are brought to mind. Weldon Leo "Jack" Teagarden was an American jazz trombonist and singer. Teagarden was born in Vernon, Texas, United States. He was just downing the dregs of it when the door of the dive opened and in burst a very cute little blond. He and Addie settled in California, and he formed a small band again. Teagardens style is also often described using words such as lyrical, vocal, legato, relaxed, fluent and smooth. Pollack's recordings were Teagarden's first. First is a delightful biographic sketch of Jack Teagarden written for the January, 1960 issue of International Musician Magazine. 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. In past due 1933, when it appeared as though jazz could not capture on commercially, he authorized a five-year agreement with Paul Whiteman. There have been times when Teagarden didnt need a rhythm section. 1940. Atwell, divorced and mother of four children, moved from California to join them. 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. The cause of death was bronchial pneumonia, which had followed a liver ailment. Both have since died. Jack Teagarden, byname of John Weldon Teagarden, (born August 20, 1905, Vernon, Texas, U.S.died January 15, 1964, New Orleans, Louisiana), American jazz trombonist, unique because he developed a widely imitated style that appeared to have arrived fully formed. 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. Sorry! Weldon Leo Teagarden was born in Texas and raised in Oklahoma. And wherever he is now, I hope the guy from Texas has a big sliphorn to make that noise that brings him peace. In the upper register, notes in any position are closer together, and many notes can be played in more than one position. [2], Teagarden sought financial security during the Great Depression and signed an exclusive contract to play for the Paul Whiteman Orchestra from 1933 through 1938. A bulky, sadfaced man with a husky baritone voice, Mr. Teagarden was one of the few musicians whose work aroused enthusiasm among all the splinter groups in contemporary jazz. He did some playing and recording with other groups at this time, most notably with his brother Charlie and saxophonist Frankie Trumbauer as the Three Ts. His mother was a piano teacher, and Teagarden began playing piano by the age of 5, the baritone horn by 7, and the trombone by 10. Jack Teagarden. A real wonderful guy to be around, but when he played his horn, he really played it.. His widow, Addie, a pioneer woman aviator and big band manager, eventually moved from Broward to South Dade, and then back to Fort Lauderdale, where she lived with Atwell until she died penniless in 1997. Although Teagarden enjoyed a long career, it was at this point that he had the greatest effect on the history of jazz. He died only a few months later of pneumonia, at the age of fifty eight, in New Orleans. The band featured Teagarden on trombone, brother Charlie on trumpet and Frank Trumbauer on sax as The Three Ts.. 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. admin About 1923 he briefly attempted to enter the oilfield business in Wichita Falls but soon gave up the venture and returned to music. He died in a motel room only hours after playing his last set from a chair because he was too weak to stand. 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. Jack took one look and busted out the back door. technique that still inspires awe even today. Atwell was only a child then, traveling with the band when she could. Of this venture, nothing but praise-both musical and personal-rang from every port of the bands call. Eddie got out, mad as a hornet, and the other driver said he was Jack Teagarden and he was sorry and how could he make things okay? A year or two later, drummer Cotton Bailey suggested that Weldon was not a suitable name for a musician and started calling him Jack. I dont want a coat, she wailed. He was considered by many to be the greatest jazz trombonist of his era, but his style was so unusual that others did not follow his example. We follow it with an insightful article written September, 1960 for Connchord Magazine. In 1933, after a brief stint in Mal Halletts band, he signed on with Paul Whitemans orchestra for five years. The group traveled to Europe in the postwar achieving great success. 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. See the article in its original context from. He is the only father I ever knew, I adored him., Her favorite times were early morning coffees when only she and her dad were up. Louis Armstrong and Jack Teagarden, between 1938 and 1948 Teagarden played professionally from age 14. The musicians thought he was some kind of gag. In 1961 he and Addie bought a house on the Intracoastal Waterway in Pompano Beach, where they lived with son, Joe. Mr. Teagarden was christened Weldon John, but he was known to jazz fans as Jack or or Big Gate or Big T (to distinguish him from his brother, Charlie, a trumpeter, who was known as Little T). Born in Vernon, Texas, on Aug. 20, 1905, he started on the trombone at the age of 7. His tombstone reads simply, Where there is hatred, let me sow love, Courtesy of the Miami Herald, e-mail:sreisinger@herald.com He wouldnt be Jack Teagarden if it came out any other way. January 30, 2023 Among the vintage giants of jazz, Jack port Teagarden had not been only the very best pre-bop trombonist (taking part in his instrument using the simple a trumpeter) but one of the better jazz performers too. He was 58 years old and had reportedly been suffering from pneumonia. We had to agree with Pee Wee, wed never heard anyone play trombone like that. His former wife had taken all the spirit out of him when she sued for divorce and got custody of the restaurant which supported him and his cymbalom. [2] In late 1951, Teagarden left to again lead his own band. Instrument: Trombone Charlie Teagarden (July 19, 1913 - December 10, 1984), known as 'Smokey Joe', was an American jazz trumpeter. In 1939, Jack port Teagarden was finally free of charge and he shortly put together a huge band that could last until 1946. He sang like he played, one observer said, in a smooth, sleepy Texas drawl. Many of his best records were made with Red Nichols. Reset your passwordClick the eye to show your password. "image": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/allaboutjazz/photos/profile/musician/e0e7e2a4dbeb66bf0ce1964893bdd.jpg", Well, I was hurt. His father, an amateur comet player, worked in the oilfields, and his mother was a local piano instructor and church organist. His tonewas unbridled, rich and raw.. the tootler from Texas strode in. Yet, despite his technical facility and a near phenomenal originality that marks his improvisations, Jack Teagardens life was, up until 1947 when he joined Louis Armstrong, a great deal short of ideal. Many critics believe that Teagardens best years were over when he left Armstrong in 1951 to form his own group. The world was full of sitdown strikes and big depression and govern- ment alphabet soup. "@type": "Person", Weldon Leo " Jack " Teagarden (August 20, 1905 - January 15, 1964) was an American jazz trombonist and singer. Omissions? [4], Teagarden's trombone style was largely self-taught, and he developed many unusual alternative positions and novel special effects on the instrument. He headed back to New York, and by 1947 was playing with Louis Armstrongs All Stars, a smaller group that is considered to have been a leader in the anti- bebop traditional jazz revival movement. His father was an amateur brass band trumpeter and started him on baritone horn; by age seven he had switched to trombone. All four Teagarden children became prominent musicians. [2], He died in New Orleans at the age of 58, suffering from pneumonia.[1]. For several years, however, Jack continued to play with local groups. drinking, he died of a heart attack in New Orleans in 1964. Teagardens life story frames the history of the jazz movement in America, rising through the 20s and 30s, struggling through World War II, and nearly drowned out by the screaming birth of rock and roll in the 50s. Cut off from the developing edge of jazz, it had no real influence and produced few recordings of note. I asked, Do your really want a fur coat that much?, She stared and then she laughed bitterly. Its theme was his old favorite, I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues.. Through the early and mid 1920s, he played with several other territory bands, including Doc Rosss Jazz Bandits, and the Orginal Southern Trumpeters. In addition, he was an inventor, redesigning mouthpieces, mutes, and watervalves and inventing a new musical slide rule. He played it solo, and Im telling you he knocked us out. What mattered was that Hack was a guy dedicated to the sound a hard-lipped genius can get out of a sliphorn. And what do you know? And when he placed his arm around the younger Goldies shoulder, there was genuine affection in the embrace. Although he once sang a blues line that testified he was born in Texas and raised in Tennessee. In 1949, the All-Stars traveled to Europe, where they did 65 concerts in 35 days. Sorry! While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. After working in the Southwest and in Mexico with pickup bands, he came to New York in 1927. and inventing a new musical slide rule. 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. Trumpet and Frank Trumbauer on sax as the Three Ts dead in New... Years were over when he was some kind of gag enjoyed a long career, it was at this that. Had to agree with Pee Wee, wed never heard anyone play trombone like that ; by seven! The younger Goldies shoulder, there may be some discrepancies [ 2 ] in 1951... 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