Teagarden, Jack (Weldon Leo; aka Big T)

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Teagarden, Jack (Weldon Leo; aka Big T)

Teagarden, Jack (Weldon Leo; aka Big T), jazz trombonist, singer, brother of Charlie Teagarden; b. Vernon, Tex., Aug. 29, 1905; d. New Orleans, Jan. 15, 1964. His mother Helen played piano and his father Charles was an amateur trumpeter. His brothers Charlie and Cub and his sister Norma were all musicians. Teagarden started playing piano at age five, and his father bought him a baritone horn two years later. By the age of 10, Teagarden was playing trombone. In 1918, he moved with his family to Chappell, Nebr.; there, he played briefly in local theatres accompanied by his mother on piano. After living in Oklahoma City, Teagarden moved to San Angelo to live with his uncle. He began gigging with local bands and then played in a quartet led by drummer Cotton Bailey at Horn Palace Inn, near San Antonio, from late 1920 until September 1921, except for a short summer season in Shreveport. It was Bailey who named him Jack. From September 1921 until spring 1923 he played with pianist Peck Kelley’s Bad Boys; he would rejoin Kelley briefly in 1924. He primarily worked with Doc Ross’s band, making his first trip to the West Coast and N.Y. with this outfit. He moved to N.Y. in late 1927, and worked with Ben Pollack from late June 1928, remaining with him, except for brief spells, until leaving for Chicago in May of 1933. During this period, he led his own recording orchestra and took part in many studio recordings with Benny Goodman, Red Nichols, Louis Armstrong, Eddie Condon, and others. In October 1928, Teagarden cut “Makin’ Friends” with Eddie Condon. He made history by using a water glass as a substitute for a mute, removing the bell of the trombone and holding the glass over the open end of the tubing to produce a unique sound.

He worked with various Chicago-based bands from June-December 1933, then joined the Paul Whiteman Orch., remaining with Whiteman until December 1938, except for a one-month engagement in N.Y. in December 1936 with the Three T’s (Jack and Charlie Teagarden and Frankie Trumbauer). He left Whiteman at Christmas 1938, and shortly afterwards began rehearsing with his own band, which made its debut in N.Y. (February 1939). From then until November 1946, Teagarden led his own big bands, which were successful musically rather than financially. Kitty Kallen and David Allyn sang with Teagarden’s band. He did many freelance recordings and was also featured at the Esquire Jazz Concert in January 1944. He led his own sextet from late 1946 until he appeared as a guest at Louis Armstrong’s Town Hall concert in spring 1947 (they sang a classic duet on “Old Rockin’ Chair’s Got Me”). Teagarden then joined Louis Armstrong All Stars from July 1947 until August 1951. He then left to form his own All Stars, which he continued to lead until playing with Ben Pollack for several months in 1956. He then reformed his own All Stars, and co-led (with Earl Hines) a sextet which visited Britain and Europe in autumn of 1957 to acclaim. Led his own All Stars on tour of Asia (September 1958 to January 1959), a group that he continued to lead until the time of his death. He played his last engagement at The Dream Room in New Orleans while suffering from bronchial pneumonia. Teagarden returned to his motel after the gig; the next morning, a maid found him dead on the floor, clad in his dress shirt and shorts.

Songs associated with Teagarden include “I Ain’t Lazy, I’m Just Dreaming/’ “I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues/’ “Meet Me Where They Play the Blues/’ “A Hundred Years from Today,” “Basin Street Blues” (he originated the introductory phrase “Won’t you come along with me”), and many others. An incessant tinkerer with things mechanical, he made his own water valve on his trombone. It is also said he made mouthpieces. He appeared in a number of films: Thanks a Million (1935), as a member of the Paul Whiteman Orch.; Birth of the Blues (1941); Twilight on the Prairie (1944); The Strip (1951), with Louis Armstrong; Glory Alley (1952), in which Teagarden plays himself, and which includes an appearance by Armstrong; The Glass Wall (1953), with Teagarden as himself and music by Shorty Rogers; Jazz on a Summer’s Day (1959); as well as “soundie” shorts and others.

Discography

“I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues” (1929); “100 Years from Today” (1931); “On The Air” (1936); Jack Teagarden’s Big Eight (1938); “Rompin’ and Stompin” (1939); Big “T” & The Condon Gang (1944); With His Sextet and Eddie Condon (1947); Meet Me Where They Play the Blues (1954); Jack Teagarden in Concert (1958); On Okinawa (1959); Jazz Maverick (1960); Portrait of Mr. T (1961); Sextet in Person (1963); The Mosaic Complete Capitol Recordings (ree. 1950s); Live at the Monterey Jazz Festival (1963; with family and friends). Louis Armstrong: Knockin’ a Jug; with Eddie Condon: Makin’ Friends (1928); That’s a Serious Thing (1928). Johnny Johnson and His Statler Pennsylvanians: “Thou Swell”/”My One and Only” (1927).

Bibliography

Jay D. Smith and Len Gutteridge, Jack Teagarden: The Story of a Jazz Maverick (England, 1960); Howard J. Water Jr., Jack Teagarden’s Music: His Career and Recordings (Stanhope, N.J., I960).

—John Chilton/Lewis Porter/Music Master Jazz and Blues Catalogue

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Teagarden, Jack (Weldon Leo; aka Big T)

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