And, we get a takeoff on Frank Sinatra–the skinny New Jersey boy who had become an overnight sensation with the “bobby-soxers”. In the course of things, we get a mayor inspired by Lou Costello (one of Universal’s top money-spinners at the time), right down to one of Lou’s catch-phrases as a curtain line. The cartoon is a jazzed-up retelling of the tropes of the “Pied Piper” story–the rats, the offer of a reward, the betrayal, the luring away of the children. Teagarden first appeared in Culhane’s Pied Piper of Basin Street (1944), playing his solid trombone. Although it did well for a whie, Teagarden did not have a head for the business angles that had to be seen to, nor did he have management of sufficient acumen to keep things going without struggle. Jack formed his own big band–a move a lot of star soloists were making–in 1939. (They worked it out so that Dorsey, a proud man with a quick temper, played a “sweet” blues chorus, and “Big T” played around him. When he left Whiteman, Teagarden was the most respected white trombonist of the time–so much so that, when he played alongside Tommy Dorsey on an all-star record date, Dorsey did not want to take a solo with Teagarden there.
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Whiteman appreciated all the jazz players who worked for him, and showcased them as part of a larger package of entertainment. Then, late in 1933, Teagarden joined the Paul Whiteman organization, and enjoyed steady work all through that time.Ĭonventional “wisdom” among jazz fans is that Whiteman kept a lid on Teagarden–but this does not really appear to be the case. Teagarden worked with the Ben Pollack orchestra (often alongside the likes of Benny Goodman, Bud Freeman, Jimmy McPartland and several members of what would become Bob Crosby’s band (from 1928 to 1933), then had his own band at Chicago’s World’s Fair–the “Century of Progress”.
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It didn’t take him long to establish himself as the ace trombonist of the age–and an engaging singer, too. He paid his dues in a succession of regional (“territory”) bands, before hitting New York at the end of 1927. Weldon John Teagarden was a Texan, and came out of a musical family. So, when famed trombonist Jack Teagarden became available to do two of their cartoon soundtracks, Calker–and Lantz–leapt at the chance to get this name musician. And he seems to have known all the musicians that were going at the time–especially the ones that were working out of Hollywood. When Walter Lantz began his “Swing Symphonies” cartoons, he called on the right man to handle the musical direction.ĭarrell Calker had worked alongside some of the top musicians of the day, as a guitarist and as an arranger.