Jack Teagarden
| Jack Teagarden | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Weldon Leo Teagarden |
| Born |
August 20, 1905 Vernon, Texas, U.S. |
| Died | January 15, 1964 (aged 58) New Orleans, Louisiana |
| Genres | Jazz, dixieland, swing, big band |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, singer, bandleader |
| Instruments | Trombone |
| Years active | 1927–1964 |
| Associated acts | Peck Kelley, Louis Armstrong, Earl Hines, Benny Goodman, Bix Beiderbecke, Glenn Miller, Paul Whiteman |
Weldon Leo "Jack" Teagarden (August 20, 1905 – January 15, 1964), was a jazz trombonist and singer.
Born in Vernon, Texas, his brothers Charlie and Clois "Cub" and his sister Norma also became noted professional musicians. His father was an amateur brass band trumpeter and started him on baritone horn; by age seven he had switched to trombone. His first public performances were in movie theaters, where he accompanied his mother, a pianist.
Teagarden's trombone style was largely self-taught, and he developed many unusual alternative positions and novel special effects on the instrument. 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" – and did much to expand the role of the instrument beyond the old tailgate style role of the early New Orleans brass bands. Chief among his contributions to the language of jazz trombonists was his ability to interject the blues or merely a "blue feeling" into virtually any piece of music.
By 1920 Teagarden was playing professionally in San Antonio, including with the band of pianist Peck Kelley. In the mid-1920s he started traveling widely around the United States in a quick succession of different bands. In 1927, he went to New York City where he worked with several bands. By 1928 he played for the Ben Pollack band.
Within a year of the commencement of his recording career, he became a regular vocalist, first doing blues material ("Beale Street Blues", for example), and later doing popular songs. He is often mentioned as one of the best jazz vocalists of the era; his singing style is like his trombone playing, in much the same way that Louis Armstrong sang like he played trumpet. His singing is best remembered for duets with Louis Armstrong and Johnny Mercer.
In the late 1920s he recorded with such notable bandleaders and sidemen as Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Bix Beiderbecke, Red Nichols, Jimmy McPartland, Mezz Mezzrow, Glenn Miller, and Eddie Condon. Glenn Miller and Teagarden collaborated to provide lyrics and a verse to Spencer Williams' Basin Street Blues, which in that amended form became one of the numbers that Teagarden played until the end of his days.
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