(JACK TEAGARDEN - MODERN TROMBONE STUDIES - 1939 - Song Bo...)
JACK TEAGARDEN - MODERN TROMBONE STUDIES - 1939 - Song Book - Robbins Music, NY - 50 pages - Jack Teagarden on front cover. Various writers / arrangers. All kinds of interior pages devoted to how to play this instrument. Songs include: Honey / The Dark Town Strutters' Ball / In a Little Spanish Town / How Am I to Know? / I Never Knew / I'll See You in My Dreams / and others. Quite an impressive item. Teagarden is usually considered a great jazz trombonist. Another artist once called Teagarden's sound "a dying cow in a thunder storm." He played with everyone and was also a big band vocalist.
Weldon Leo "Jack" Teagarden was a jazz trombonist and singer.
Background
He was born in Vernon, Texas, in August 20, 1905. He was the son of Charles Woodrow Teagarden, a maintenance supervisor in a cottonseed oil mill, and of Helen Giengar, a music teacher and pianist.
At the age of five, Teagarden began playing the piano and baritone horn. Two years later his father bought him his first trombone. Because of his still small stature he could not use the orthodox slide positions. He thus developed his own technique, which enabled him to play more rapidly and to achieve certain tones by using his lip rather than the movement of the slide.
Education
Teagarden attended the Vernon grammar and high schools and played in local bands.
Career
After his father's death in 1918, Teagarden and his mother played background music in movie theaters. Subsequently, he accepted a job with Cotton Bailey's Band. He was called "Jack" by the leader and thereafter was known by this nickname. During 1921-1927 Teagarden played with several bands, including pianist Peck Kelley's Bad Boys and Doc Ross' Jazz Bandits. He was with R. J. Marin's Original Southern Trumpeters, when they successfully promoted American jazz in Mexico in 1924. He was featured as the "South's Greatest Trombone Wonder. "
In 1927 Teagarden moved to New York, where his superior musicianship quickly made him one of the most highly regarded trombonists in white jazz. He exhibited his advanced technique during work with Wingy Manone and the Scranton Sirens. He joined Ben Pollack's Orchestra in 1928, remaining until 1933. During this period he made his recording debut, played in many studio groups, and helped break the racial color-line on records.
In 1933 Teagarden was asked by Paul Whiteman to play in his orchestra. He remained with Whiteman until the end of 1938. For a short interval he performed with his brother, Charles (trumpet), and Frankie Trumbauer (saxophone) as the Three T's.
As the Swing Era developed, Whiteman created within his main orchestra a "Swing Wing" featuring Teagarden. The style's popularity induced the trombonist to form "Jack Teagarden and His Orchestra" in 1939, which he led until late 1946. It was musically successful but financially disastrous.
In 1941 Teagarden performed in the film Birth of the Blues with Bing Crosby. He also played in other movies and made many recordings. He toured the country extensively during World War II entertaining the armed forces. And he was featured at the 1944 Esquire Jazz Concert, having received the Gold Award in the magazine's Jazz Poll. After breaking up his band, he briefly led a sextet. From 1947 to 1951 he played with Louis Armstrong's All Stars. Teagarden then appeared with his own All Stars until 1956. Next he spent several months with Ben Pollack, performed at the 1957 Newport Jazz Festival, and led a sextet with Earl Hines, which toured Europe late in the year. From September 1958 to January 1959 he took his own group on a tour of Asia sponsored by the State Department. He performed at the 1963 Monterey Jazz Festival together with his mother, brother Charles, and sister Norma on piano.
Teagarden died in New Orleans. His funeral service featured a trombone quartet.
Achievements
Personally soft-spoken and congenial, Teagarden was noted for his instrumental and vocal renditions of numbers such as "St. James Infirmary" and "Beale Street Blues. " He made hundreds of recordings with dozens of well-known musicians. It was largely through his influence that the trombone came to be used for melodic jazz improvisation, not merely for chord basses and "smears" in the traditional New Orleans tailgate style. Teagarden's distinctive tone and occasional use of a clearly recognizable triplet rhythmic pattern characterized his music. He was also famous for his "glass-and-a-half" technique of replacing the bell of his instrument with a drinking glass, thus giving an unusual sound to his playing. His reputation is perhaps best summarized by the statement that he was a "Musicians' Musician, Trombonists' Trombonist, and Jazzmen's Jazzman, " who was "unique in his performing, and a gentleman at all times. "
