Happy Birthday, Jack Teagarden (1905-1964)

Truly one of the greats on the trombone, Jack Teagarden will forever be remembered for his warm, fluid technique and the down-home Southern-style charm in his voice.  He often shared the stage with the great Louis Armstrong in the later years of his career, but his early recordings from the 1930s and 1940s are still my best models for "swing" trombone playing. Jack Teagarden is not easy to emulate (or even copy for that matter), let me tell you! He makes it looks and sound very easy, but behind all that butter is something else, to be certain. As usual on birthdays, check the videos below, which show Teagarden in his prime for the most part, as well as clicking to this Swing Symphony Cartoon from 1944, The Pied Piper of Basin Street, featuring Jack Teagarden (this one can't be added to the group of videos below, otherwise I would embed it with the rest, but check it out at YouTube).