Jack Teagarden Self-Taught Trombonist – Phantom Dancer

His mother was a ragtime pianist and Jack started on piano when he was 5. His father played in brass bands and encouraged himon the baritone horn. He switched to trombone when he was 10 and was largely self-taught so he had unusual slide positions in his style.

His brother, Charlie, with whom Jack played in bands throughout his careeer was an excellent trumpet player. He had a drummer sister, Clois.

His other sister, Norma, played piano (and violin in the early part of her career). She toured with her Jack from 1944–1947 and from 1952–1955.

Outside the Teagarden family, she worked with Ben Pollack, Matty Matlock, and Ray Bauduc. She often performed on solo piano or with bandleader Turk Murphy in San Francisco.

Teagarden worked in the Southwest in a variety of territory bands (most notably with the legendary pianist Peck Kelley) and then caused a sensation when he came to New York in 1928.

His daring solos with Ben Pollack caused Glenn Miller to de-emphasize his own playing with the band, and during the late-’20s/early Depression era, “Mr. T.” recorded frequently with many groups including units headed by Roger Wolfe Kahn, Eddie Condon, Red Nichols, and Louis Armstrong (“Knockin’ a Jug”).

His versions of “Basin Street Blues” and “Beale Street Blues” (songs that would remain in his repertoire for the remainder of his career) were definitive. Teagarden, who was greatly admired by Tommy Dorsey, would have been a logical candidate for fame in the swing era but he made a strategic error.

In late 1933, when it looked as if jazz would never catch on commercially, he signed a five-year contract with Paul Whiteman. Although Whiteman’s Orchestra did feature Teagarden now and then (and he had a brief period in 1936 playing with a small group from the band, the Three T’s, with his brother Charlie and Frankie Trumbauer), the contract effectively kept Teagarden from going out on his own and becoming a star.

In 1939, Jack Teagarden was finally “free” and he soon put together a big band that would last until 1946.

However, the arrangements lacked their own musical personality, and by the time it broke up Teagarden was facing bankruptcy.

The trombonist, however, was still a big name (he had fared well in the 1940 Bing Crosby film The Birth of the Blues) and he had many friends.

Crosby helped Teagarden straighten out his financial problems, and from 1947-1951 he was a star sideman with Louis Armstrong’s All-Stars; their collaborations on “Rocking Chair” are classic.

After leaving Armstrong, Teagarden was a leader of a steadily working sextet throughout the remainder of his career, playing Dixieland with such talented musicians as brother Charlie, trumpeters Jimmy McPartland, Don Goldie, Max Kaminsky, and (during a 1957 European tour) pianist Earl Hines. Teagarden toured the Far East during 1958-1959, teamed up one last time with Eddie Condon for a television show/recording session in 1961, and had a heartwarming (and fortunately recorded) musical reunion with Charlie, sister/pianist Norma, and his mother at the 1963 Monterey Jazz Festival. He died from a heart attack four months later and has yet to be replaced.