The Unsung Jazz Virtuoso: The Jack Teagarden Story

Ever wondered what musical mastery hides in the shadows of jazz history? Let me guide you through the life and times of Jack Teagarden, the trombone virtuoso and vocalist whose story is often unsung amidst the jazz greats. Born with a talent that defied the norms of his era, Teagarden's integration of the soulful sounds of Black spirituals and blues into his playing made him a trailblazer in the jazz world. Our journey unfolds as we trace his beginnings from the South, touring as a young prodigy with his mother, through his formative years with Peck Kelly's Bad Boys, and into the heart of New York's roaring jazz scene.

Prepare to be captivated by tales of his collaborations with legends like Benny Goodman in the Ben Pollack Orchestra and the friendship that bloomed with Bing Crosby—partnerships that showcased not only his incredible talent but also his humility and spirit of teamwork. Despite facing tough times leading his own band, Teagarden's resilience and Crosby's support painted a picture of an industry filled with camaraderie. His legacy, marked by an admirable character and dedication to his craft, is a testament to the enduring power of passion and the untold stories behind jazz's brightest stars. Join us as we pay homage to the unique genius of Jack Teagarden and celebrate a musician who played not just with notes, but with heart.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:32

Thank you, all right, happy Friday. Happy Friday this is August the 13th. Friday the 13th. For those who are superstitious, I'm not, but I'm just wanting to put that out there. Superstitious I'm not, but I'm just wanting to put that out there. Welcome to another episode of the More Wine and Music podcast, the podcast where we discuss music over a glass of wine. I want to welcome you to episode number seven, but before we get into tonight's episode, I want to do a little bit of housecleaning and do a little bit of promotion, because I want to promote some stuff for my business. Okay, so before I get started to more wine and music podcast, I want to talk about the product of the more naturally you hair care line. I have a hair mist that is for sale and it is called More Naturally you Hair Care. Hair Mist is a moisturizer. It's a cream, but it's also a moisturizer that is light when you put it on your hair and it'll help your hair to stay moisturized throughout the day. So I'm going to put up the link of where you can purchase that if you are interested, and that would be under the morenaturallyyoucom website. I'm going to put that up there right now. All right, do you see the ticker running and besides that, I also have a hair growth balm. The hair growth balm is again an organic, natural, light balm that you can use on your scalp. For those who have natural style hair, use it on your scalp to keep your scalp moisturized, but it also keeps your hair in place. In place. It's not greasy, it's very light and it kind of keeps your hair hold in your style, in a good body hold. So that is also available on the morenaturallyyoucom website, so check that out. I also want to promote my online mall shopping website and that's wwwmoreshoppingco and it's called the More Online Mall and what I have is a bunch of T-shirts, I have coffee mugs, I have tote bags, a bunch of t-shirts, I have coffee mugs, I have tote bags. What's being popular right now is the. I am having a 25% off sale. It's called Summer 21. So when you hit that coupon code, summer 21, you will get 25% off on all merchandise that are online on the website. So there's some very great products there, lots of good T-shirts. I want to kind of move the t-shirts and stuff out the way so I can get some fall and winter stuff in. So take advantage of the 25% off on themoreshoppingco. All right, without further ado, I'm going to continue on. That was the housekeeping. I have to promote my products I mean it's part of my business, so I will do that Before I get into tonight's genre. Also, if you're interested in wanting to buy me a coffee, this will help promote and help keep the content going of the More Wine and Music podcast. So just go to buymeacoffeecom, backslash morewinemusic and give a donation there and that will help keep the website going and I can bring in better content and I'm hoping to bring in special guests that we can talk about different genres of music. Okay, so with all that out the way, we're going into episode seven.

Speaker 1: 5:03

Episode seven His name is Jack Teagarden. Jack Teagarden, I have never heard of him when I did some of the research. It's not a very long biography about him, but nevertheless he made an impact into the early jazz genre. He made an impact into the early jazz genre. He was considered what we call a double threat, because not only was he able to play a jazz music, a jazz instrument Well, I E the trombone but he was also a singer. So he had a double, double talent. But who was he? Like I said, I've never heard of Jack Teagarden. Unless there are people out there that are way older than I am no offense but who may know him or have heard of him, I have never in my lifetime have heard of him, heard of him. I have never in my lifetime have heard of him. So I thought that would be somebody that I would like to dig in further, because I like to portray those who are lesser known in whatever music genre that I'm talking about. So who was Jack Teagarden?

Speaker 1: 6:19

He was born on August 29th in 1905 in Vernon, texas. By 1918, his family moved to Chappell, nebraska. He came from a very musically inclined family. His mother, helen, was a musician. Plus he had younger siblings, I think two brothers and one sister, and they were also musicians. At the age of five he learned how to play the piano and by the age of seven he learned to play the baritone horn, and by the age of 10, he learned the trombone, which is his trademark instrument. So he went from piano to baritone horn, to trombone. So he was very talented in the horn section as well as playing piano.

Speaker 1: 7:18

Jack's love of music, I guess, is started by listening to Black spiritual music, ie the blues Back then you're talking about the early turn of the 20th century and, as you recall from my last season of the blues genre, that was the beginning of how a lot of the Negro spirituals and has really transformed into the blues and Jack he loved that. And, as a side note, jack Teagarden was Caucasian, so he took a very strong interest in learning about Black music and particularly the spirituals and all the work song, because you know, especially if you're coming from the South, when you're working on that railroad or even working out in the fields as sharecroppers, one thing about our people is that we are very creative and artistic in coming up with songs and lyrics and that's just a way of helping to endure the blood, sweat and tears of farming and sharecropping and just the woes of everyday life as a Negro. We were Negro back then life, but little Jack Teagarden, he took an interest in that so he started to. You know, the family lived not too, not too far from the Black community and I don't know it didn't say what I was doing my research whether it was still while he was still in Texas or when they moved to Nebraska, I'm not sure. But his family nevertheless. They lived very close to the Black community. So as you know that back then that it was a lot of segregation as far as communities. So but his family um live more closer to the Black? Um side of town than they did on the white side, and so that's how Jack became um very familiar with um the sounds of the blues and all the the works um sounds of, of the men working on the railroad, and also where they lived. They lived right across from where Blacks would have their tent revivals, so they would have every summer, if anybody who's African-American we know that we have our summer tent revivals or camp meetings or whatever you know within the community. And the Teegarden family lived happened to live right across the street from where the Black community will hold their gospel revivals nightly, and Jack would actually attend those revival meetings because he loved the music so much. He loved the energy that the church folks were giving, and so he really got interested in the gospel and the blues genre and so he would attend the tent revivals.

Speaker 1: 11:10

By the age of 20, I'm sorry, let's go back by the age of 15, he was performing with his mother and they were touring the South in local theaters. He and his mother played together for eight years, which I thought was interesting. The mother and son and, I think, as I read, you know, later on his siblings joined them. So it was a family affair, family of musicians. They toured together in the South and played together, you know, along with their parent. So I thought that was kind of interesting.

Speaker 1: 11:43

And during those eight years that he and his mom played, he played with the groups such as Peck Kelly's Bad Boys and Jazz Bandits and Johnny Johnson. His first recording was in 1927, and from there he moved to New York, moved to New York, and from when he moved to New York, that's when he actually began to gain his notoriety as a talented young trombonist and was eventually asked to join the Ben Pollock Orchestra, which was at that time a major jazz band in New York. At that time, in fact, in that band was another famous clarinetist and that was Glenn Beck. I'm sorry, not Glenn Beck, benny Goodman, excuse me. Benny Goodman, who was 19 years old at the time. He was also in the Ben Pollack Orchestra. So so Jack Teagarden and um Benny Goodman, they both played together. Um, they were both um young teenagers. Um Benny Goodman was 19 years old at the time and um Teagarden was around 15, 16, 17.

Speaker 1: 13:06

Um, in addition to Benny Goodman, in the band there was also Jimmy McPartland and also, eventually, it was Glenn Beck that also was part of the band too, that Glenn Beck who really was the one who arranged the music, the composition, the pieces of that band, and it was said that because of the way Jack Teagarden played, they actually had to. Glenn Beck had to actually write his music to kind of compensate Teagarden the way he played, because he played so well and he was able to pick up. It was some complicated choruses or complicated riffs or whatever, but Teagarden picked it up right away. So I mean, it was no problem at all for him to learn whatever Glenn Beck had written. He played it well and, matter of fact, he played it so well that to where Glenn Beck decided to compose pieces that will accommodate how Te Garten played on his trombone. So you know, no matter how complex the arrangement, the music arrangement was, you know T Garten was able to, you know, pick it up right away, which was, you know, that shows his talent.

Speaker 1: 14:48

During the five years that he played with the Ben Pollux Band he was very diligent and was probably underrated because he was so talented. But you know, again, you had Glenn Beck and Benny Goodman in the same band so they got more accolades than what Teagarden had received. Yet Teagarden was pretty much up there in caliber and maybe a little better, to be honest, in caliber than what Glenn Beck and Benny Goodman were. But I mean, he was underrated. But I mean again, he was not. He was a humble person.

Speaker 1: 15:31

Um, they say he was very easy to work with. Everybody loved him wherever he played, whoever he played with. Um, there's nothing bad or sinister about him. He was just a great uh player, a team player, um, and and you know that's very rare because you always have someone who's in the band who thinks whose can be, as we call, as anybody who ever knows the term, a David Ruffin. There's always a David Ruffin in any band who thinks they can, they're better than the whole group and I'm sure those who are listening out there, who knows who David Ruffin was of the temptations, but it can understand what I'm talking about. There's always that one person in that band who always think that they're the ones who make the group, that they are better than the group, make the group, that they are better than the group.

Speaker 1: 16:33

So, but Jack Teagarden was that, even though he was, you know, very good in what he does, he was very, a very good player and he probably knew it, and I'm sure it was probably people in his ear, as always there's always somebody in outside, in in someone's ear, saying you know, you can do better, you don't have to be in this group, you can, you know, go off on your own, which eventually, you know, he played for them for a little while and then he got with Ben Crosby and because his contract with the Ben Pollack Orchestra was up, and that was around 1938. And so he became what was considered like a free agent and so, as him being a free agent, he wanted to form his own, do his own thing, create his own group. So which turned out actually a bad mistake because of the fact that everybody at that time in New York, around the twenties and the thirties, I mean, I mean you can go to every corner and see every jazz band, every group out there, and the competition was just fierce. And so, unfortunately, jack Teagarden and his band, they just didn't create a niche to where they would be able to stand out among all the others who were already out there, so it didn't last long. So, with the heavy competition, he had to disband, and that was from 38 to 1946.

Speaker 1: 18:30

But he didn't dissuade from that. He believed in himself and he recognized his talent and, you know, realized that Jack was, you know, could be, you know, an asset to whoever who we play with. So he, financially, actually being Crosby, actually financed financially, gave him the money to kind of take care of all the the debt that he had incurred as being a solo, a soloist or his own band or performing his own band, because, that's like I said, the band went bankrupt in 1946. So he was in a mound, a large amount of debt, and so, being Crosby, recognizing you know what a good talent that he was, he took care of all the financial debt that Jack Teagarden had incurred. And so in 1947, jack met another famous band leader who I talked about last week and that was Satchmo himself, mr Louis Armstrong. So he became a part of the Louis Armstrong's All-Star.

Speaker 1: 20:05

By that time, as you can recall from last week's episode when I was talking about his wife, lillian Harden Armstrong, louis had left King Oliver's band, creo Band, and after that disbanded, he went and moved on to New York and that's when he eventually formed his own band and it was called Louis Armstrong's All-Star. And then that's how Jack became a member of Louis Armstrong's band and it was said that Jack and Louis' love of jazz cemented their partnership, cemented their partnership. They recorded Jack Armstrong's blues. A Song Was Born, and Please Stop Playing those Blues. They worked very well together and in the recordings you can hear how well they worked together as both horn players. They were very, they both complemented each other and they played together for about four years.

Speaker 1: 21:21

So you know, after the four years Jack learned to try his luck again, with Louie's blessing. I mean, there was no hard feelings. Jack felt that he wanted to try and go off on his own again. So after four years he decided to leave the Louis Armstrong All-Stars and formed a band called the Dixieland Sextant. Dixieland Sextant and that includes actually it was a family affair because he included his brother, charlie T Garten, who played the trumpet, and he played and sang his songs in this band. So he was actually that's where you call the double threat because from this particular band that he created the Dixieland Sextech, he was able to not only use his talent as a trombone player but he actually sang on a lot of the songs that they played and recorded. From this point and 13 years later, from this point, he was active in playing and recording behind other people. I don't know how long the Dixieland sextet lasts it might not have lasted as long as 13 years but he was still very much involved with playing with other people during that time.

Speaker 1: 23:06

During that time, on September 20th and the 21st in 1963, jack was featured on two sets of the Monterey Jazz Festival. This was a special event because on this set, this occasion, he actually played with his mom again. So he reunited with his mother, helen, and they both played on the set at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 63. And so that was on the first set. The second set he was actually he played. He had an opportunity to play with his sister, norma and again with his brother Charlie. So I mean that was a good comeback, so to speak. I mean, even though he, you know, was around, he wasn't as, again, like I said, he was kind of considered underrated because he was playing behind so many people. So he wasn't as recognized as he should have been, but nevertheless he did contribute a lot and his talent on the trombone player was something that really nobody really couldn't at that time emulate. He had a special way of playing that trombone and he played it. He played it well and people he was sought after for people to play in their particular group and play on particular songs, on particular songs.

Speaker 1: 24:52

However, after the Monterey Jazz Festival in 63, on January 15th in 1964, jack Teagarden suffered a heart attack at the age of 58. Still today he is known as one of the greatest trombone player in history, as well as a great singer. There was nothing bad or nothing scandalous about him. All people who have worked with him and played with him had nothing but good things to say about him. So that is the story of Jack Teagarden, and so that's it Again.

Speaker 1: 25:30

Very short, nothing scandalous. I guess if you want scandal, you have to. Actually, I would have to talk about those who are more famous. A lot of these artists that I portray and that I've talked about, you know their, their stories are pretty much short. It's short and to the point. There's no undercurrent scandals. So maybe I'll throw in a famous, well better known person to talk about and maybe I can, you know, get more information and more you know of the tea, so to speak, on on how they actually, how they were what people say they were. I mean those are. Again, that's just speculation, it doesn't mean that it's true or not, that's just gossip. So it might make a more of a better episodes, I don't know.

Speaker 1: 26:27

All right, so next week, episode number eight, I will be talking about another person called Frankie Trumbauer, Again, somebody I never knew. He is another Caucasian jazz artist, but he made his mark in the jazz genre as well. So his name is Frankie Trumbauer. So that would be episode eight. So again, thank you for listening. Also, again, please help support the podcast Findmeacoffeecom backslash. More wine and music, I'm sorry, more wine music. You don't have to do the more wine and music. It's buymeacoffeecom more wine music. Give a little donation to help keep the content going.

Speaker 1: 27:24

So, please, please, please, check out the hair products that I have on the morenaturallyyoucom website. There's a lot of great products that I would like to have on there to share with you. You, I'm a hair anybody who knows me and know I'm a hair product junkie and I just like to find good quality, affordable hair products and I like to share and I like to share those products. So, if you're interested, if you have natural, even if you don't have. I mean you don't have to have natural hair in order to use these products. These products are actually created for all types of hair. So don't get put off because I always say natural.

Speaker 1: 28:18

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Speaker 1: 28:54

And for t-shirts, for the I am a natural woman t-shirts, among other t-shirts that has other sayings that you know. I get these sayings I, I. It pops in my head and whatever um, words of encouragement or whatever, whatever pops in my head. I designed it on a t-shirt. So please check out the website, wwwmoreshoppingco. And this is a use the coupon code SUMMER25 for 25% off. So all caps coupon is SUMMER25. You'll get 25% off on all products that are on the site. So please check that out. All right? So that's it for Friday you guys have a good weekend. Rest of your weekend and I will talk to you next week for episode number eight. Have a good night. Sounds great, sounds great, thank you.