Tag Archives: jazz

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 were 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.

Background

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.

Jimmy Harrison, Gone But Not Forgotten

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For jazz appreciation month, more about jazz trombonist Jimmy Harrison, Coleman Hawkin’s friend and bandmate mentioned in the Hawkins documentary from the previous post.

Jimmy Harrison

Jimmy Harrison

Harrison was born in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1900. He was raised in Detroit, Michigan. Like Jack Teagarden, he was largely self taught, but started the trombone later, as a teenager. It didn’t take too long for Jimmy to find work as a musician in Detroit, and soon he was gigging throughout the midwest. He eventually made it to New York City, and continued a promising trajectory. There were stints with with Fess Williams, Elmer Snowden, June Clark, Billy Fowler, and even, in the early 20s, Duke Ellington.

Kaiser Marshall, Fletcher Henderson’s drummer, remembered meeting Jimmy Harrison at Small’s 5th Avenue Club in 1923, when he was playing with cornetist June Clark’s five-piece band. He recalled:

Jimmy Harrison

Harrison on record:

Blazin’ May 29, 1925 with Fletcher Henderson’s orchestra: Harrison’s solo is in at 1:10:
Sweet and Hot 1931 with Fletcher Henderson’s orchestra: Jimmy Harrison, trombone and vocal.

“Jimmy played riffs and often played his trombone very high, so that sometimes you would think two cornets were playing instead of one…He was crazy about Louis Armstrong, and some of the things that Louis made on his cornet or trumpet, Jimmy could play the second part of it. In fact like I said, before you could think, two trumpets were playing.”

Harrison joined Fletcher Hendersons’s band in 1925, becoming bandmates with Coleman Hawkins in the bargain. Kaiser recalled that Harrison had a one-year contract with Charlie Johnson and that Fletcher Henderson had to “buy his contract in order get him.” The meeting between Jimmy and Jack Teagarden took place soon after, in part engineered by Hawkins himself at the Roseland Ballroom. Later, the musicians put together jam sessions at Marshall’s place. Kaiser again:

“Jack Teagarden … used to come over to our house often, sometimes staying all night, and we would have a slight jam ses­sion between Hawk who lived only a few doors from us. So Jack would play piano, Jimmy trombone, Hawkins tenor, and myself on my rubber-pad I kept at home. Then Hawk would play piano, Jack and Jimmy trombone. My, what fun we had!”

Most of Harrison’s best recorded solos are with Benny Carter‘s Chocolate Dandies, a group that at the time had a fair amount of overlap, personnel wise, with Fletcher Henderson’s aggregation.

Here’s Jimmy with his pre-Henderson employer, Charlie Johnson. With Johnson’s “Paradise Orchestra,” the tune is Walk That Thing, recorded on September 19, 1928:

Also with Johnson, The Boy in the Boat from 1928:

Here’s Jimmy with Benny Carter’s Chocolate Dandies group: Dee Blues, recorded on December 3, 1930:

In addition to arriving at similar jazz trombone styles inspired by Louis Armstrong, Harrison and Teagarden were both singers. Jimmy added something more, entertainment wise: a Bert Williams inspired, vaudeville-style “preaching” act. Some of these performances by Harrison were apparently recorded; none have yet surfaced.

Jimmy Harrison continued playing with Fletcher Henderson through early 1931. He joined Chick Webb‘s band next. Sadly, he became ill soon after, succumbing to a severe stomach ailment that has been described as “ulcers,” or possibly cancer. He was only 29.

Including Coleman Hawkins, musicians that enjoyed much longer careers in jazz never forgot about Jimmy Harrison. Benny Carter lauded him for his “warmth, tone, feeling and style,” and felt that recordings don’t give a full picture of his playing. Trumpeter Rex Stewart also testified to Harrison’s preeminence as a swing trombonist in mid-twenties New York, adding that, because of the trombonist’s early death, “History inadvertently and unwittingly bypassed Jim.”

Coleman Hawkins Remembers Jimmy Harrison and Jack Teagarden

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In 1956, Coleman Hawkins was interviewed by Bill Grauer and Paul Bacon for Riverside Records. At one point, Hawkins recalls a period — about April, 1928, it turns out — that he played at the Roseland Ballroom with Jimmy Harrison, a trombonist and fellow member of Fletcher Henderson’s band. Hawkins and Jimmy already shared a kidding, bantering friendship, and soon, the arrival of Jack Tegarden at the Roseland would give Hawkins another thing to tease Harrison about:

Below is a transcription of this portion of the Hawkin’s interview done by writer Richard Hadlock in the 60s. Hadlock tries to contain some of Coleman’s valuable digressions, but it’s mostly accurate. I recommend listening, of course.

“I’d heard about this Teagarden . . . Jimmy and all the rest of them were down­stairs, or I don’t even know if they were in yet. I heard him playin’, so I went downstairs to get Jimmy and the fellows to start kidding about it. I says, “Man, there’s a boy upstairs that plays an awful lot of trombone.” “Yeah, who’s that, Hawk?” I says, “He’s a boy from New Orleans or Texas or somethin. I don’t know. What do they call him? Jack Teagarden or somethin’. Jimmy do you know him?” “No, I’m not gonna know him . . . trombone player, ain’t he? Plays like the rest of the trombones, that’s all. I don’t see no trombones. I say the trombone is a brass instrument; it should have a sound just like a trumpet. I don’t want to hear trombone sound like a trombone. I can’t see it. I said, “Jimmy, he doesn’t sound like those trombones. He plays up high; sounds a lot like a trumpet, too.” He says, “Oh, man, I ain’t paying no mind.” Jimmy and Jack got to be the tightest of friends. After this night, I couldn’t separate Jimmy and Jack Teagarden. So we used to come up to my house practically every night . . . I don’t know how they made it, because we’d sit up there and fool around ‘til two, three, four o’clock in the afternoon–no sleep. And we were working every night. We used to go there and eat these cold cuts, cheese and crackers and stuff, and we’d do this and play–playin’ all night. Jimmy and Jack both jivin’ each other . . . trying to figure out what he lacks so he can get from the other one . . . and I dug what was going on . . . I had the piano, and they could play all night. It didn’t disturb anybody or nothin’. The house was all draped and carpeted . . . Both of them got their trombones, and I played pi­ano for them. This used to go on all night long, listening to records and eating and talking and back to playing again–every night. You couldn’t keep Jack out of Harlem . . . He made every rent party . . . Jack made himself right at home. And always had that horn. He must have never slept, playing horn night and day. But that was a funny experience when Jack came up, ‘cause Jimmy never heard anyone play trombone like that.”

It’s J.J. Johnson’s Birthday, 2018

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It’s J.J. Johnson’s Birthday! This is from J.J. Inc, one of my very favorite recordings from this fantastic musician, who left us in 2001. J.J. Inc was recorded in August 1960 for Columbia Records, NYC, and released on April 10, 1961. The other personnel include Clifford Jordon, Tenor Sax, Arthur Harper, Bass, Albert Heath, Drums, Cedar Walton piano, and a young and fiery Freddie Hubbard on trumpet.

Here’s Mowhawk from the album: