Today, on the birthday of Jack Teagarden, an American jazz musician, trombonist, composer, singer, and bandleader. Teagarden is known by the nicknames ‘Big T’ and ‘The Swingin' Gate,’ and is called the ‘Father of Jazz Trombone.’ The musician took part in the recording of more than a thousand records.

A selection of musical compositions performed by Jack Teagarden is posted in the museum Music Library.

Jack Teagarden was born in Vernon, Texas, the oldest of four children. His siblings also pursued musical careers: Charlie played trumpet, Norma played piano, and Clois ("Cub") played drums.

Teagarden's father, Charles, worked in the oil fields and played cornet part-time, while his mother, Helen, was a semi-professional pianist who accompanied silent films in local theatres. Charles encouraged Teagarden to play the baritone horn. At the age of eight, Jack received his first trombone as a Christmas gift, transitioning from the tenor-valve horn to the trombone. Soon he began performing with his mother at a local cinema, providing soundtracks for silent films. In 1918, after his father's death, the family moved to Chappell, Nebraska, where they continued to perform at the cinema, and a year later they moved to Oklahoma City.

In 1921, at the age of 16, Teagarden began playing the trombone professionally in San Antonio as a member of ‘Cotton Bailey's’ dance and jazz band. In the autumn of that same year, Teagarden joined Peck Kelley's ‘Bad Boys’ orchestra from Houston. Then, Paul Whiteman, a well-known jazz musician, after hearing the orchestra playing once, offered Teagarden a place in his orchestra in New York, but Jack continued to play in local bands for another two years. In 1923, Teagarden tried his hand at the oil business for a while, but soon returned to music.

Jack Teagarden first arrived in New York in 1926, as a musician with ‘Doc Ross's Jazz Bandits’, who were touring the East Coast. In 1927, Teagarden moved to New York, where he planned to join Paul Whiteman's orchestra, but after hearing drummer Ben Pollack play, he joined the orchestra of Pollack instead, replacing Glenn Miller as first trombone.

Teagarden made his first recordings in 1927, with ‘The Kentucky Grasshoppers’, a spin-off group of the Pollack's orchestra. Teagarden went on to perform with many musicians, including Paul Whiteman, guitarist Eddie Condon, trumpeters Louis Armstrong and Bix Beiderbecke, Bob Crosby, and many others.

In the early 1930s, Teagarden settled in Chicago, where he played in several orchestras. In 1933, experiencing financial difficulties, after a brief playing with Mala Hellett's group, Teagarden signed a five-year contract with Paul Whiteman's orchestra; he performed and recorded with the orchestra until 1939. Then, Teagarden left Whiteman and formed his own band, which, however, was not commercially successful and was disbanded. In 1946, Teagarden joined Louis Armstrong's ‘All Stars’ and performed with them for several years. In 1951, he formed his own band with pianist Earl Hines. From 1957 to 1959, he toured Asia with this band on behalf of the US State Department.
Jack Teagarden died of pneumonia in January 1964 at the age of 58. He was buried in Los Angeles.

Among white trombonists, Teagarden was the first to understand the essence of African-American music and the style of its performing. Unlike Louis Armstrong or Bix Beiderbecke, he was unable to create melodies with developed dramaturgy; nevertheless Teagarden had a perfect understanding of jazz in all other respects, possessing a highly developed sense of swing. There were never any even eighth notes in his performance: there was always an off-beat. Teagarden hardly ever used a mute, but muffled the sound using a technique he invented: he removed the detachable bell of the trombone and put a regular glass on the tube. The playing style of Teagarden is most often described as ‘lazy,’ ‘supple,’ and ‘sexy.’ Teagarden was self-taught and developed many unusual alternative playing positions and new special effects on the trombone. The musician is considered the most innovative jazz trombonist of the pre-bebop era. In particular, musicologists note his solos in the high registers, the absence of strict musical meter in his solos, and his use of lip trills in his playing. The major contribution of Teagarden to jazz performance lies in the fact that the trombone in the orchestra moved from its traditional supporting role to the group of solo instruments. The musician's most striking feature was his ability to give any part of a melody a ‘blue feeling’ with just a few notes. He was one of the first musicians to start using blues notes in jazz. In addition to being an outstanding trombonist, Jack Teagarden was also a distinguished jazz singer. With his rough, slightly nasal voice and typical Southern accent, he often performed sentimental melodies and sang traditional blues very convincingly. As critics noted back in 1960, Jack Teagarden's voice was ‘something between a strong stretching of words and a simple yawn.’

Jack Teagarden was the author and co-author of many jazz compositions; he appeared in four feature films: Birth of the Blues (1941), The Strip (1951), The Glass Wall (1953) and Jazz on a Summer's Day (1960).