Austin High School Gang
| Austin High School Gang | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Chicago, Illinois |
| Genres | |
| Years active | 1920–30 |
| Past members | |
The Austin High Gang was the name given to a group of young, white musicians from the West Side of Chicago, who all attended Austin High School during the early 1920s. They rose to prominence as pioneers of the Chicago Style in the 1920s, which was modeled on New Orleans Jazz, but sounded more hurried.
In 1922, five kids from Austin High School in Chicago, Illinois formed a little band which consisted of Jim Lanigan on piano, Jimmy McPartland on cornet, his older brother Dick McPartland on banjo and guitar, Frank Teschemacher on alto saxophone, and Bud Freeman on C-melody tenor saxophone. Bud was the greenhorn of the group and the only one who did not also play the violin. At the time, their ages ranged from Jimmy McPartland, who was fourteen, to Jim Lanigan and Dick McPartland, seventeen. Teschemacher was sixteen and Freeman was slightly younger. They were so keen on music that they practiced in school and in their homes.
Coming from comfortable middle class homes they could, at the outset, pursue their common musical ambitions as a hobby, a circumstance that allowed them much more freedom of choice. Their initial inspiration was a local ensemble called the Al Johnson Orchestra, which gave them the motivation they needed to improve rapidly. Soon, they were playing at the afternoon high school dances, which were then becoming popular in Chicago. The band continued to play – at high school fraternity dances and any other opportunity that presented itself.
Jazz was a relatively novel style of music in the early 1920s, and it took root largely in New Orleans and New York. However, the spread of culture at the day was hampered by limited technology, so the Austin High School Gang grew up in an environment where jazz music was not yet thriving.
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