Jack Teagarden

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Jack Teagarden

Weldon Leo "Jack" Teagarden (born August 20, 1905 in Vernon , Texas , USA ; † January 15, 1964 in New Orleans , Louisiana ) was a trombonist and singer of traditional jazz and swing .

Live and act

Teagarden's brothers Charlie (trumpet) and Cub (drums) and his sister Norma Teagarden became professional musicians like him . Occasionally it is claimed that he had Indian ancestors, but Richard Sudhalter ( Lost Chords ) calls this a legend, which partly goes back to Teagarden himself, who in his memories describes an Indian powwow , which he attended in 1919, as a formative experience. His mother Helen, who had German ancestors and who supported the family as a silent film pianist after his father's death, gave him his first piano lessons at the age of five. His father (who died in 1918) was an amateur cornet player in a brass band and initially gave him lessons on the baritone horn , which Teagarden gave up when he was ten and switched to the trombone . His first jazz influences were black gospel singing , the blues , which he internalized more and more over the years, and the music of the Louisiana Five .

His professional career began in 1921 at the age of sixteen when he became a member of Peck Kelley's band (until 1923) . He then toured the American South with various local groups, including 1925-27 with Doc Ross and His Jazz Bandits.

Jack Teagarden, Mary Lou Williams , Tadd Dameron , Hank Jones , Dizzy Gillespie .
Photography by William P. Gottlieb .

Teagarden surprised the scene with his virtuoso playing when he appeared in New York in 1928 , and although the country was in a deep economic crisis in the years that followed, he had no major problems making a living from music. During these years he had various recordings , including a. with Eddie Condon , Red Nichols , Wingy Manone , Roger Wolfe Kahn and Louis Armstrong .

He made frequent records with Ben Pollack's orchestra until 1933 and then left his band after signing a five-year contract with the Paul Whiteman Orchestra. During this time he still had a short period in 1936 with a small group together with his brother and Frank Trumbauer .

When he finally left the Paul Whiteman Orchestra in 1938, he put together his own big band ( Jack Teagarden and His Orchestra ) and recorded some records for Brunsweick, Columbia, Varsity and Decca - a. a. with the singers Kitty Kallen and David Allyn - although the success was limited, since at this time the big band era was at its height and the competition was immense.

In 1947 he joined Louis Armstrong and his "All Stars", which resulted in four very productive years. The group recorded nearly ten albums and had huge audience success. However, Teagarden decided in 1951 to leave Armstrong and lead his own groups again, including a sextet in particular , in which he played for the rest of his career. During this time he worked again with his brother Charlie, with Jimmy McPartland and the pianist Earl Hines and with the clarinetist Hank D'Amico .

In the following years he made several tours, including in Europe (1957) and Asia (1958 to 1959); He also played in 1963 with his brother, sister and mother at a concert at the Monterey Jazz Festival . Jack Teagarden died in 1964 in New Orleans at a pneumonia .

meaning

From left: Jack Teagarden, Sandy DeSantis, Velma Middleton, Fraser MacPherson, Cozy Cole, Arvell Shaw, Earl Hines, Barney Bigard. At the Palomar Supper Club, March 17, 1951.

His style was mostly self- taught, and he developed some unusual, but also very virtuoso new playing techniques, such as playing in alternative train positions and with lip trills . He is widely the pre-bop era referred to as the most innovative jazz trombonist and did much for the role of the trumpet over the old Tailgate style of New Orleans - Brass bands to expand beyond.

Teagarden as a singer

In 1934 Teagarden made pure vocal recordings for the first time; he worked on material from the jazz tradition in a series of effectively combined special vocal and trombone arrangements, such as in his arrangements of Spencer Williams' " Basin Street Blues " and WC Handy's " Beale Street Blues ". The author Will Friedwald judged him: “Jack Teagarden had a very limited range, but as a singer and as a trombonist he created a practically unlimited range of possibilities of expression from a flat monotony. Teagarden is also characterized by being the only one in jazz whose voice has the same sound as his instrument. ”The author particularly emphasizes Teagarden's early work as his voice“ aged and weathered, like good whiskey - and actually through whiskey . ”He cites the album Think Well of Me , recorded for Verve in 1962 with arrangers Russ Case and Bob Brookmeyer, as the most successful example , on which Teagarden interpreted the songs of veteran Willard Robison .

Jack Teagarden and His Orchestra

Discographic notes

Collections

literature

  • Will Friedwald: Swinging Voices of America - A Compendium of Great Voices . Hannibal, St. Andrä-Wölker 1992, ISBN 3-85445-075-3
  • Heiner Mückenberger: Meet Me Where They Play The Blues. Jack Teagarden and his music. Gauting-Buchendorf (Oreos Verlag), 1986.

Web links

Commons : Jack Teagarden  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ His father's family came to the USA from Germany via England in 1735. His maternal grandfather was called Gienger and is distantly related to Eberhard Gienger . Memories from Norma Teagarden
  2. ↑ for example at Ross Russell : Jazz style in Kansas City and in the Southwest , University of California Press, 1971, p. 122, Online  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , the question of Indian origins is described there as open or unclear ( has been ignored by certain biographers and remains unclear )@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / 0-muco.alexanderstreet.com.libra.naz.edu  
  3. ↑ Ross Russell, loc. cit.
  4. ↑ Quoted from W. Friedwald, p. 243.
personal data
SURNAME Teagarden, Jack
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Teagarden, Weldon Leo (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American early jazz trombonist
DATE OF BIRTH August 20, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH Vernon, Texas , USA
DATE OF DEATH January 15, 1964
Place of death New Orleans , USA