[Dixielandjazz] FW: Jack Teagarden

[Bill Haesler]

Dear friends,
This well-written piece (via the Australian Dance Bands list) says it all.
Kind regards,
Bill. 
_________________________________________________________

Shining a Spotlight on the Perfect Collaborator

Jack Teagarden at 100
by Will Friedwald
New York Sun, August 29, 2005

No jazz musician was ever as relaxed as Jack Teagarden. Louis
Armstrong and Bing Crosby may have been the two coolest individuals
in the history of music, but when they worked with Teagarden they
looked almost nervous by comparison.

Teagarden projected the image of the lazy, unflappable Texan
relaxing in the very rockin' chair he sang about so often. He made
it seem like the only reason he even picked up his trombone or
opened his mouth was because it happened to be easier than not doing
those things. Even when he sang the blues he seemed not to have a
care in the world. He never broke a sweat while playing trombone
runs so intricate and difficult that a lesser player would have torn
his arm.

Jack Teagarden (1905-64) was also the greatest trombonist in
history. Of his approximate contemporaries Kid Ory had loads of
personality, Tommy Dorsey had impeccable technique, Lawrence Brown
had a distinctive tone, and Dicky Wells had boundless imagination.
But none had as much of everything as did Teagarden. His speed was
eventually matched by technically prodigious early beboppers like
J.J. Johnson and Kai Winding, yet they couldn't equal his emotional
resonance. And no jazz musician has sung or played the blues as
movingly as Teagarden.

He was born 100 years ago this month, yet you'd never know it. The
jazz world seems indifferent. There is no comprehensive CD reissue
package -- although there are a few worthy-looking imports from
England. Not one of the major concert producers in the metropolitan
area has announced an appropriate Tea Party. The only good news is
that 2006 promises the publication of the definitive Teagarden
biography. The Toronto-based archivist and filmmaker Joe Showler has
been working on this project for more than 30 years and has amassed
the world's largest collection of Teagarden material. The book will
be more than 1,000 pages, and Mr. Showler has also made a superb two-
hour documentary on Teagarden's life, which he hopes will be
distributed on DVD and shown on PBS.

It's not surprising that Teagarden's centennial should be shouted
less loudly from the hilltops than that of Duke Ellington in 1999,
Armstrong in 2001, Bix Beiderbecke in 2003, or Count Basie and Fats
Waller last year. The trombone itself seems to have lost its star
quality. Not only is Teagarden absent from the Nesuhi Ertegun Jazz
Hall of Fame -- situated in Jazz at Lincoln Center's Rose Hall --
but so are all other purveyors of the instrument. I suspect this has
less to do with the trombone's glorious history than its shaky
present. While there are some brilliant players around today, like
Steve Turre, Wycliffe Gordon, or John Allred, there are no big
trombone stars. Like the clarinet, which has been superseded in
modern jazz by the soprano saxophone, the trombone is pretty much
only heard in big bands.

Another reason for the oversight is that Teagarden was the perfect
jazz collaborator; his career was less a series of star turns than a
set of partnerships with musicians more celebrated than he. When he
first blew into New York from his native Texas in 1927, he joined
the "hot dance" band led by drummer Ben Pollack. This started a
fruitful collaboration with the slightly younger, equally prodigious
Benny Goodman; the two would record prolifically together in
the 
years leading up to the swing era. (Except for one guest appearance,
on the well-titled "You're a Heavenly Thing," Goodman couldn't get
Teagarden into his breakout band, and so employed a string of Tea-
influenced trombonists over the years, such Cutty Cutshaw and Lou
McGarity.)

In fact, Teagarden nearly missed out on the swing era. He was under
contract to Paul Whiteman and his archaic concert orchestra at the
beginning of the big-band boom. What saved him was the 11-piece side
band he formed with his kid brother Charlie on trumpet and fellow
Whitemanian Frank Trumbauer on sax. The sides they recorded for
Brunswick -- collected on Mosaic's seven-disc "Complete
Okeh/Brunswick Bix, Trumbauer & Teagarden" -- showcase the
trombonist's tremendous swing skills.

Teagarden's most celebrated collaboration was with Armstrong. Some
regard the blues as the point of division between the races, but on
recordings like 1929's "Knockin' a Jug" Teagarden and Armstrong made
it clear that the blues were a place where New Orleans and Texas
could meet. From 1947 to 1951 Teagarden was officially a sideman in
the All-Stars, the very popular small band that showcased Armstrong
in most of his postwar activities. When they sang "Rockin' Chair"
or "Jack-Armstrong Blues," it was clear that the two men regarded
each other as nothing less than full-fledged equals.

Teagarden left Armstrong's All-Stars because the constant traveling
was too much for him, and formed his own group in 1952. But he was
far less successful as a bandleader than he had been as a
collaborator. Former sidemen all say that he was a terrible
businessman, and he never developed a distinct vision of what a band
should be. He was very good at surrounding himself with first-rate
players -- he discovered stride pianist Don Ewell and clarinetist
Kenny Davern -- but he never gave much thought to the context of his
music or the drive behind a band. He also tried to remain in
California, where he lived, as much as possible.

Any account of Teagarden's life will also be full of outlandish
anecdotes about excessive drinking. Once when he was too drunk to
play, Tommy Dorsey happened to be in the house and was called upon
to lead Tea's band and play his solos. So excessive and acknowledged
was the trombonist's drinking that it was even considered droll for
Teagarden to appear regularly at a San Francisco jazz joint
called "The Club Hangover." But his drinking was ultimately more
tragic than funny: It killed him in 1964 at 58, when his powers of
inspiration were still with him.

Indeed, Teagarden's final years amounted to an Indian summer. He
made some of the best albums of his career in extensive sessions for
Capitol, Roulette, and Verve. He formed a great partnership with the
brilliant cornetist Bobby Hackett on a pair of Capitol
albums, "Coast Concert" and "Jazz Ultimate." (They are combined on a
single CD from Collector's Choice Music, WWCCM0165x.) He also cut a
trio of marvelous LPs in 1961-62 for Verve.

"Mis'ry and the Blues" (1961) is a marvelously eclectic batch of
tunes with Teagarden and his regular group, as well as one tune
("Love Lies") with organ accompaniment. Though Tea had two years to
go when he taped "Think Well of Me" in 1962, I always think of that
lovely album as his swan song. His very first recorded solo, waxed
in January 1928, had been with Willard Robison, and Tea capped his
recording career 34 years later with this stunningly beautiful,
heartfelt collection of Robison's evocative Americana tunes.

Here's hoping Verve next reissues Tea's last studio album, called
simply "Jack Teagarden!!!" which stretches his repertoire in the
direction of "Moon River," "All the Way," and "Learnin' the Blues."
The latter title is an ironic one: It was Jack Teagarden, after all,
who taught the rest of us how to sing and play the blues.

The Essential Teagarden

Jack Teagarden was one of the most recorded jazz musicians of the
1920s and 1930s. His ability to construct brilliant solos in very
short spaces -- and sing the blues like nobody's business -- was a
major asset to producers of the era, and he was comfortable both in
small group jam features and pop-oriented dance bands. The problem
with trying to assemble a comprehensive collection of early
Teagarden work lies in that very diversity. His key sessions of the
1920s and 1930s are spread across many labels and, unlike Louis
Armstrong, he did most of his best work as a sideman, making
comparatively few sessions as a bandleader.

There are two new and promising collections from England. The four-
CD "Big T" (ProperBox 80) ambitiously samples the first two-thirds
of Teagarden's career up to 1953, while the wittily titled "One
Hundred Years From Today" (just released from ASV/Living Era,
CDAJS2005) goes up to the big-band period.

Teagarden is also one of the most prominent jazz legends in the
Mosaic Records catalogue, appearing on eight Mosaic boxes, including
three in which he is prominently featured. There are two collections
of late-vintage Tea: "The Complete Roulette Jack Teagarden Sessions"
(218) and "Complete Capitol Fifties Jack Teagarden Sessions" (168).
Also highly recommended is "The Complete Okeh/Brunswick Bix,
Trumbauer & Teagarden" (Mosiac MD7-211), which concentrates on
saxophonist Frank Trumbauer's remarkable partnerships with cornetist
Bix Beiderbecke in the 1920s and Teagarden in the 1930s. Tea is only
featured on 51 tracks of this seven-CD set, but who could object to
having a complete accounting of Columbia's holdings on Beiderbecke
as part of the bargain?

In 1954, Teagarden recorded a stellar album called "Accent on
Trombone," accompanied by neo-swing trumpeter Ruby Braff, the Benny
Goodman-esque Sol Yaged on clarinet, and the tenor saxophonist Lucky
Thompson. The highlight of the disc is the Teagarden
mainstay "Lover," which he had been using as a virtuoso showpiece at
least since his days with the Armstrong All-Stars. He takes this
rather gentle Richard Rodgers waltz and supercharges it into a
swinging four. For the most part, Teagarden played melodic, rather
than harmonic variations, yet on this recasting of "Lover," his use
of chromatic embellishments parallel Coleman Hawkins's arpeggios,
breaks, and runs. Teagarden spins three marvelous choruses that
barely hint at Rodgers's melody -- taking it here and there, this
way and that way. It's impossible not to feel the love in
"Lover" -- 
and like love itself, you want it to never end.

For the best overall sampler of Teagarden's greatest, it's best to
stick with the classics. In 1963 -- when Tea himself was still
around to appreciate it -- producers Frank Driggs, Richard Dupage,
and John Hammond put together what has stood for the last 40 years
as the definitive Tea collection, "King of the Blues Trombone."
Originally released as a three-LP box on Epic, it has been recently
re-released as a two-CD set (with all 48 tracks) from Collector's
Choice Music (WWCCM0279x). The package is in need of new mastering,
and now that BMG is part of the same corporation as Sony, they could
easily incorporate the tracks from the marvelous Teagarden Victor
Vintage LP. But even as it stands, "King of the Blues Trombone" is
still an essential introduction to an essential musician.