Jack Teagarden Gets the Basin Street Blues

Jack Teagarden

Source: Los Grandes del Jazz

Born of German ancestry in Vernon, Texas, on 20 August 1905, trombonist and vocalist, Jack Teagarden, had a father, Charles, who died of influenza in 1918. His mother, Helen, was a pianist and music teacher who also accompanied silent films as she moved her family of musicians (Jack, Norma, Charlie and Clois) first to Nebraska, then Oklahoma City. Jack began his music career in San Antonio by age fifteen. The band of pianist, Peck Kelly, was among the first that he joined. Teagarden toured with various bands and worked for radio until eventually making it to New York City in 1927 with the Kentucky Grasshoppers. Going by Tom Lord's sessionography, Teagarden's earliest issued recordings were with Johnny Johnson & his Statler Pennsylvanians on December 2, 1927, for Victor: 'My One and Only' and 'Thou Swell' (Victor 21113). He recorded a couple of unissued tracks with Wingy Manone the same day: 'There'll Come a Time' and 'Toot Toot Toot'. Manone and Teagarden traveled different circles but would work together again in 1936 and 1944.

Teagarden began 1928 with a session thought to be in January with Willard Robison, recording 'There Must Be a Silver Lining' and 'I Just Roll Along'. The next March he put up 'She's a Great, Great Girl' and 'Give Me the Sunshine' with Roger Wolfe Kahn. The next September found him recording three takes of 'Cherry' with the Dorsey brothers [Jimmy / Tommy] in a band called the Big Aces. That same day he put away ''Round Evening' and 'Out of the Dawn' with a something different configuration called the Dorsey Brothers and Their Orchestra. Teagarden and Jimmy in particular recorded in numerous bands together into 1934. He and Tommy contributed to the All Star Band in 1939. Teagarden would reunite with both Dorseys on separate occasions later in 1951 and 1956.

On October 1 of 1928 Teagarden laid the first several of numerous tracks with drummer, Ben Pollack, with whom he would wax time and again into the thirties and as late as the early fifties. That was also Teagarden's first session with Benny Goodman (clarinet), Harry Goodman (tuba and brother to Benny) and Jimmy McPartland (cornet). Teagarden and the Goodman brothers backed numerous operations together, Harry to as late as 1934, Benny to 1941. Teagarden and McPartland made numerous records together in various configurations into 1929, reunited in 1933 and later in the fifties.

The year of 1928 was a big one for Teagarden, during which he also recorded his first tracks with Irving Mills on 16 October, Mills singing as Milton Irving with the Whoopee Makers. Mills employed Teagarden numerously into 1930. Teagarden first recorded with both Eddie Condon (guitar) and Mezz Mezzrow (clarinet) on 30 October 1928. That was with Condon's Footwarmers. He and Condon would get mixed together variously on numerous occasions to as late as 1949, reuniting in 1961. Teagarden worked with Mezzrow again in Condon's Hot Shots in 1929 and Louis Armstrong's All Stars in 1948. On November 23 of 1928 Teagarden joined Mills' Musical Clowns toward 'Whoopee Stomp', 'Baby' and 'Bugle Call Rag'. On 27 November of 1928 Teagarden joined Jimmy McHugh's Bostonians for 'Baby', 'Remember I Love You' and 'The Whoopee Stomp'.

It was 18 April 1929 when Teagarden first recorded with Glenn Miller, that in Red Nichols' Five Pennies for titles like 'Indiana' and 'On the Alamo'. Teagarden and Miller worked in various orchestras alike into 1931, last recording together with Nichols whom he had supported regularly. In June of 1929 Teagarden Joined Nichols in the Louisiana Rhythm Kings to record 'Basin Street Blues' for his first of innumerable times. Basin Street refers to the red-light district of Storyville in New Orleans. It was composed by Spencer Williams in 1928 and initially recorded by Louis Armstrong that year. In November of 1929 Jack joined his brother, Charlie, in the Texas Rangers of Virginia Willrich. Charlie Teagarden was a trumpet player who performed alongside Jack regularly into 1940, later in 1944, the fifties and lastly in 1963.

Teagarden may have had opportunity to work with Bix Beiderbecke in June of 1930 in Irving Mills' Hotsy Totsy Gang recording as Jack Winn and His Dallas Dandies. Though Beiderbecke's presence on those tracks isn't certain, he was likely with Hoagy Carmichael and His Orchestra in which Teagarden sat on 15 September toward 'Georgia on My Mind, 'One Night in Havana' and 'Bessie Couldn't Help It'. Teagarden and Carmichael later reunited in 1939 for the film 'Hoagy Carmichael Featuring Jack Teagarden and His Orchestra'. Jack's first recordings as a bandleader may have gone down on 1 October 1940 in New York City toward 'Son of the Sun', 'You're Simply Delish' and 'Just a Little Dance, Mam'selle'.

Teagarden worked Paul Whiteman's big band from 1933 to 1938. It was with Whiteman that he first backed vocalist, Johnny Mercer, in 1934. Teagarden would sit in with Whiteman again in 1942, 1943 and 1956. Crossing paths with Frank Trumbauer while with Whiteman, Teagarden recorded in Trumbauer's orchestra on 12 January 1934. Jack and his brother, Charlie, joined Frank as The Three T's at the Hickory House in New York in December of 1936.