Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Charlie Teagarden was born July 19, 1913 in Vernon, Texas, the younger brother of Jack Teagarden. Nicknamed Little T, he worked locally in Oklahoma before he and Jack joined Ben Pollack’s Orchestra in 1929. Pollack’s recordings were Teagarden’s first before he worked with Red Nichols in 1931 and Roger Wolfe Kahn in 1932 before doing a seven-year run in the Paul Whiteman Orchestra from 1933 to 1940. In 1936 he, Jack, and Frankie Trumbauer played together in the ensemble The Three T’s.

Teagarden played in his brother’s big band in 1940 but soon branched off to lead his own ensembles. He played with Jimmy Dorsey in 1948-50 and Bob Crosby from 1954–58, as well as working with Pete Fountain in the 1960s. He worked steadily in Las Vegas, Nevada after 1959.

His only release as a leader was issued in 1962 on Coral Records. At the 1963 Monterey Jazz Festival, he performed with Jack, sister Norma, and mother Helen. Teagarden went into semi-retirement in the 1970s.

Trumpeter Charlie Teagarden, also known as Smokey Joe and who was among the hundreds of artists whose material was reportedly destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire according to The New Times Magazine, passed away on December 10, 1984 in Las Vegas.

More Posts: bandleader,history,instrumental,jazz,music,trumpet