Born in Vernon, Texas, his brothers Charlie and Clois "Cub" and his sister Norma also became noted professional musicians. Teagarden's father was an amateur brass band trumpeter and started young Jack on baritone horn; by age seven he had switched to trombone. He first heard jazz music played by the Louisiana Five and decided to play in the new style.
Teagarden's trombone style was largely self-taught, and he developed many unusual alternative positions and novel special effects on the instrument. He is usually considered the most innovative jazz trombone stylist of the pre-bebop era, and did much to expand the role of the instrument beyond the old tailgate style role of the early New Orleans brass bands. Chief among his contributions to the language of jazz trombonists was his ability to interject the blues or merely a "blue feeling" into virtually any piece of music.
By 1920 Teagarden was playing professionally in San Antonio, including with the band of pianist Peck Kelley. In the mid 1920s he started traveling widely around the United States in a quick succession of different bands. In 1927, he went to New York City where he worked with several bands. By 1928 he played for the Ben Pollack band.
Within a year of the commencement of his recording career, he became a regular vocalist, first doing blues material ("Beale Street Blues", for example), and later doing popular songs. He is often mentioned as one of the best white male jazz vocalists of the era; his singing style is quite like his trombone playing, in terms of improvisation (in the same way that Louis Armstrong sang quite like he played trumpet). His singing is best remembered for duets with Louis Armstrong and Johnny Mercer.
In the late 1920s he recorded with such notable bandleaders and sidemen as Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Bix Beiderbecke, Red Nichols, Jimmy McPartland, Mezz Mezzrow, Glenn Miller, and Eddie Condon. Glenn Miller and Teagarden collaborated to provide lyrics and a verse to Spencer Williams' Basin Street Blues, which in that amended form became one of the numbers that Teagarden played until the end of his days.
In the early 1930s Teagarden was based in Chicago, for some time playing with the band of Wingy Manone. He played at the Century of Progress exposition in Chicago. Teagarden sought financial security during the Great Depression and signed an exclusive contract to play for the Paul Whiteman Orchestra from 1933 through 1938. The contract with Whiteman's band provided him with financial security but prevented him from playing an active part in the musical advances of the mid-thirties swing era.
Teagarden then started leading his own big band. Glenn Miller wrote the song "I Swung the Election" for him and his band in 1939.[2] In spite of Teagarden's best efforts, the band was not a commercial success, and he was brought to the brink of bankruptcy.
In 1946 Teagarden joined Louis Armstrong's All Stars. Armstrong and Teagarden's work together shows a wonderful rapport, in particular their duet on "Rockin' Chair". In late 1951 Teagarden left to again lead his own band, then co-led a band with Earl Hines, then again with a group under his own name with whom he toured Japan in 1958 and 1959.
Teagarden appeared in the movies Birth of the Blues (1941), The Strip (1951), The Glass Wall (1953), and Jazz on a Summer's Day (1960), the latter a documentary film of the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival. He was an admired recording artist, featured on RCA Victor, Columbia, Decca, Capitol, and MGM Records discs. As a jazz artist he won the 1944 Esquire magazine Gold Award, was highly rated in the Metronome polls of 1937-42 and 1945, and was selected for the Playboy magazine All Star Band, 1957-60.
Teagarden was the featured performer at the Newport Jazz Festival of 1957. Saturday Review wrote in 1964 that he "walked with artistic dignity all his life," and the same year Newsweek praised his "mature approach to trombone jazz."
Richard M. Sudhalter writes (in 'Lost Chords: White Musicians and Their Contribution to Jazz', Oxford University Press, 1999): "The late trumpet player Don Goldie, who spent four years in Teagarden's band and had known him since childhood said that he 'always got a feeling that a lot of happiness was locked away inside Jack, really padlocked, and never came out..."
"Jack Teagarden died, alone, of a heart attack complicated by bronchial pneumonia in his room at the Prince Conti Hotel in the French Quarter of New Orleans on January 15, 1964. He was only 58. "I sometimes think people like Jack were just go-betweens," Bobby Hackett told a friend. "The Good Lord said, 'Now you go and show 'em what it is', and he did. I think everybody familiar with Jack Teagarden knows that he was something that happens just once. It won't happen again. Not that way..."
"...Connie Jones, the New Orleans cornetist working with Jack Teagarden at the time of the trombonist's death, was a pallbearer for the wake, held at a funeral parlor on leafy St. Charles Avenue: 'I remember seeing him there in a coffin, a travelling coffin. They were going to fly him to Los Angeles for burial right after that. The coffin was open and I remember thinking 'Boy he really looks uncomfortable in there'.
"'Not that he was that tall. Maybe five foot ten or so, at most. But he was kinda wide across the shoulders - and most of all he just gave you the impression he was a big man, in every way. In that coffin, - well, I can't really explain it, but he seemed to be scrunched up into a space that was too small to contain him'".
He was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles, California.
The coda of Teagarden's recording career is the album Think Well of Me, recorded in January 1962 and made up of his singing and trombone playing, accompanied by strings, on compositions by his old musical associate Willard Robison: available on Verve CD 314 557 101-2.
[edit]Compositions
Jack Teagarden's compositions included "I've Got 'It'" with David Rose, "Shake Your Hips", "Big T Jump", "Swingin' on the Teagarden Gate", "Blues After Hours", "A Jam Session at Victor", "It's So Good", "Pickin' For Patsy" with Allan Reuss, "Texas Tea Party" with Benny Goodman, "I'm Gonna Stomp Mr. Henry Lee" with Eddie Condon, "Big T Blues", "Dirty Dog", "Makin' Friends" with Jimmy McPartland, "That's a Serious Thing", and "Jack-Armstrong Blues" with Louis Armstrong, recorded on December 7, 1944 with the V-Disc All-Stars and released as V-Disc 384A.
Ol' Man River
Jack Teagarden Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
That ol' man river
He don't say nothing
But he must know something
Cause he just keeps rolling
He keeps rolling along
Rollin' along
He don't plant tators
Them that plants 'em is soon forgotten
But ol' man river
He keeps rolling along
You and me
We sweat and strain
Body all aching
And wracked with pain
Tote that barge
Lift that bale
Get a little drunk
And you land in jail
I gets weary
Sick of trying
I'm tired of living
Feared of dying
But ol' man river
He's rolling along
The song Ol’ Man River by Jack Teagarden is a powerful and hauntingly beautiful song that speaks of the relentless and unstoppable nature of the Mississippi River. The lyrics, although simple, are packed with meaning and express a deep sense of hopelessness and despair that was probably common among the African American population during the time it was written. The song begins with the line “Ol’ man river, that ol’ man river”, which is repeated throughout the song, emphasizing the continuity of the river’s steady flow, and its significance as a reference point for the lives of those who lived and worked along its banks.
The second line, “He don’t say nothing, but he must know something”, suggests that the river carries with it some kind of hidden knowledge or wisdom that is beyond human comprehension. Despite the many changes that occur around it, the river remains unchanged and continues to roll along. The third line, “Cause he just keeps rolling, he keeps rolling along” reinforces the idea that the river is an unstoppable force of nature that is beyond human control. The fourth line, “Rolling along, he don't plant taters, he don't plant cotton”, suggests that the river is not concerned with the agricultural cycles that dictate the lives of those who work on the land along its banks.
The fifth line, “Them that plants ‘em is soon forgotten” is a reference to the idea that those who work the land are doomed to a life of obscurity and forgottenness. The sixth line, “But ol’ man river, he keeps rolling along” is repeated once again, driving home the point that the river is a constant and persistent force that will always remain unchanged. The final verses of the song speak of the hardships and struggles of those who work along the river, and the weariness and despair that inevitably comes with such a hard and unrelenting life.
Line by Line Meaning
Ol' man river
The Mississippi River is personified as an old man who has lived to see it all.
That ol' man river
The same old man river that one keeps hearing about.
He don't say nothing
The river flows silently without saying anything.
But he must know something
Although the river does not speak, it must have witnessed many things.
Cause he just keeps rolling
The river just keeps flowing, never stopping or pausing.
He keeps rolling along
The river flowing forever, despite anything else happening.
Rollin' along
Again, the river is just rolling along and doing what a river would typically do.
He don't plant tators
The river does not plant potatoes or anything else.
He don't plant cotton
The river does not plant cotton or anything else either.
Them that plants 'em is soon forgotten
People who plant crops come and go, but the river remains constant.
But ol' man river
Even though the river does nothing, it remains important.
He keeps rolling along
The river just keeps on flowing as always.
You and me
The song now turns to people, making a comparison between them and the river.
We sweat and strain
People work hard, constantly struggling and striving to survive.
Body all aching
People's bodies hurt from all the hard work and struggle.
And wracked with pain
People suffer and experience pain and suffering.
Tote that barge
People work on the river, hauling goods back and forth.
Lift that bale
They continue to struggle and strain to keep their job.
Get a little drunk
Some people turn to alcohol to ease their pain and forget their problems.
And you land in jail
Drinking too much and other actions can lead to trouble and landing in jail.
I gets weary
People grow tired and exhausted from all the work and hardship.
Sick of trying
They become frustrated and disheartened with the constant struggle.
I'm tired of living
People become tired of living with all the hardship and struggle in their lives.
Feared of dying
They are scared of dying and what may come next in life, if anything at all.
But ol' man river
Despite everything people experience, the river just keeps on flowing.
He's rolling along
The river is a constant in life despite everything else changing.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: JEROME KERN, OSCAR II HAMMERSTEIN
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
tony salvatore
Dave Thank-You for bringing this GEM to us. Beautiful
swingyoucats
Accompanied by Don Ewell, piano, Stan Puls, bass, Ronnie Greb, drums. Recorded at "The Roundtable" -- July 1, 1959.
Gardner Smith
Thank you. I heard this on Rob Bamberger's Hot Jazz Saturday Night many years ago and have been looking for it ever since.
Paul The Trombonist
This is awesome!!!
Joe Sattler
very beautiful
William Reynolds
Great !!!!