Jack Teagarden with Louis Armstrong & the All-Stars in St. Paul, Minnesota, 1948

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Below, a Louis Armstrong Armstrong All Stars Concert from May 8, 1948 in St. Paul, Minnesota. The venue is the St.Paul Auditorium:

The Louis Armstrong All-Stars!

Town Hall Concert May 17, 1947

Town Hall Concert May 17, 1947

It’s generally recognized that a May 17, 1947 Town Hall concert in New York City constitutes the origin story of the Louis Armstrong All Stars touring band. Many fantastic musicians where featured, and Jack Teagarden turned in a classic performance of his version of St. James Infirmary, featuring his trombone-slide-with-waterglass technique:

The official debut of the Louis Armstrong All Stars took place on August 13, 1947 at Billy Berg’s in Hollywood, so the group is a little less than a year old here. Even by that time, however, the All Stars went through a few personel changes, with Earl Hines replacing Dick Cary, and Arvell Shaw replacing the orginal bassist Jack Lesberg. (Morty Corb played bass with the group for a brief time, before Shaw joined in the Fall of 1947.) The rest of the band included Barney Bigard, clarinet, Sid Catlett, on drums*, and of course, Jack Teagarden on trombone. Vocals were covered by Louis, Jack, and Velma Middleton.

The ‘Big Band Era’ was mostly over, and both Louis Armstrong and Jack Teagarden had been leading big-bands in the recent past. Only Teagarden was in a sizable debt as a result, and he’d already begun the “pay it off” journey by leading smaller groups. In May of 1947, Jack was working consistently at the Famous Door in NYC with a quite good band: Peanuts Hucko on clarinet, Max Kaminsky on trumpet and the legendary Sid Catlett on drums.

*After Catlett became ill in April, 1949, his ‘permanent’ replacement was Cozy Cole. May of 1954 would find the All Stars still going with Barret Deems on drums, while Billy Kyle had taken over the piano spot in 1953.

The curator of the Marchant 3M Tape Archiving Project gives this explanation about the origin of this recording, which is one of many he’s shared:

The creator of this archive worked for 3M (who manufactured the Scotch audio tape this was recorded on) in the Twin Cities and likely got special permission to record the concert, as high-quality tape recordings were a novel and still developing technology in the late 1940s. These recordings have sat in various Marchant family homes for nearly 80 years before now being shared with you on YouTube.

The All Stars had been touring widely all year: in February 1948, they received an enthusiastic reception in Nice, France, and just the preceding Monday, May 3, the band played Carnegie Hall.

Here on this recording as elsewhere, Louis’s showmanship sets the tone for the presentation. By the time his All Stars made it to St. Paul, their repertoire was pretty well established, consisting mosty of tunes designed to feature members of the band. Teagarden’s features on the concert consist of 100 Years From Today and Basin Street Blues, but of course his presence is heard throughout. When Louis and Jack perform a vocal duet, as on Rockin’ Chair, the results always seem “just right.” (They’d return to Rockin’ Chair ten years later in Bert Stern’s movie, Jazz on a Summers Day.)

By September of 1951, Teagarden was weary of the All-Stars (nearly literal) all-over-the-world touring schedule, and he decided to leave the group. The trombonist Russ Phillips replaced Jack at the time. His son, Russ Phillips (Jr.) was also destined to become a jazz trombonist! Trummy Young would take over the All-Stars trombone spot about a year after Teagarden left; he’d prove to be every bit the fantastic musical foil for Louis Armstrong that Teagarden was.

Bill Harris: Swinging and Inscrutable

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From YouTube, a transfer of Woody Herman’s band performing Bijou for Columbia records. The recording date is August 20, 1945 (coincidentally Jack Teagarden’s birthday). Bijou is a composition by Ralph Burns, who also composed Early Autumn and played piano with the band.

Bill Harris

Bill Harris in 1947 (Photo by William P. Gottlieb)

Bill Harris, who was born in Philadelphia on October 28, 1916, takes the trombone solo. His expressive, slightly quirky, style is perfect for the tune, and Harris became associated Bijou after the recording was released. (Check out the Swing and Beyond website for more on Bijou.)

Early on, Harris picked up other instruments, (tenor sax, trumpet), but he didn’t start playing trombone professionally until he was 22 years old. After that, it’s fair to say his improvising style left a big impression.

Unsurprisingly for a trombonist, some of Bill’s first professional work came in big bands: Bob Chester, Ray Mckinley, and Gene Krupa among them. Employment with Benny Goodman came in 1943 and ‘44. (He’d work with Goodman again in the 50s.) According Leonard Feather’s Encyclopedia of Jazz, Bill also led a sextet at the Café Society (Uptown) in New York City in Spring of ‘44. Woody’s orchestra came next, as Bill became a member of Herman’s so-called “First Herd.” He’d hang around for the “Second Herd” also known as the “Four Brothers” band.

It wasn’t all big-band for Harris though. A notable portion of his career involved an association with Norman Granz’s “Jazz at the Philharmonic” (JATP) series of touring jam-sessions. The concerts, begun in 1944 Los Angeles, often combined musicians of varying stylistic bent, which at the time meant swing players and burgeoning beboppers. For his own part, Harris was essentially in the swing camp, but he had no issues fitting in with the “modernists.” From a 1955 “Jazz at the Philharmonic All-Stars” concert in Berlin, here’s Harris blowing up a storm:

In addition to leading small groups himself, Harris also played the sideman role with other small group leaders, including tenor saxophonist Charlie Ventura, and bassist Chubby Jackson, who was also a member of Woody Herman’s first and second herds. With Charlie Ventura’s “Big Four,” below is “Characteristically B. H.” While the melody is be-boppy — maybe even monkish — Harris mostly floats above the rhythm section during his solo:

During the 50s, Harris often performed and recorded with other Woody Herman alum. Here he is playing Everywhere, a ballad of his own composition, with the “Ex-Hermanites”:

Harris spent some time gigging in Las Vegas before eventually retiring to Florida. He died in Hallandale, Florida, at the age of 56, but not before leaving a significant dent in the jazz trombone universe.

Trump’s New Dumb, Same as the Old Dumb

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It’s been official for awhile, but those in the know realize that we’re now officially on the dumbest (and most dangerous) timeline.

Donald Trump in Oval Office. He's showing off a map with 'Gulf of America' on it. (Rebranded 'Gulf of Mexico')

What, was ‘Gulf of USA, USA’ taken?

But what does Wikipedia say? Well, the article titled False or misleading statements by Donald Trump is too long:

This article may be too long to read and navigate comfortably. Consider splitting content into sub-articles, condensing it, or adding subheadings. Please discuss this issue on the article’s talk page. (September 2024)

A Happy 2025 to You!

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You might have noticed — if you ever happen to stop by here — that this particular place isn’t updated all that frequently. Despite that, the staff will try again this year! We sincerely hope it’ll be a great new year for everybody, despite what the election of a certain somebody seems to portend. (See the previous post.)

You can put your mind at ease, though, this website won’t be experimenting with ‘Artificial Intelligence’ any more that it’ll be experimenting with artificial plants or shrubs. Oops — looks we already did.