Frank Teschemacher (March 13, 1906 – March 1, 1932)
was an American
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...
clarinetist
This article lists notable musicians who have played the clarinet.
Classical clarinetists
* Laver Bariu
* Ernest Ačkun
* Luís Afonso
* Cristiano Alves
* Michel Arrignon
* Dimitri Ashkenazy
* Kinan Azmeh
* Alexander Bader
* Carl Baermann
* ...
and alto-
saxophonist
The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to pr ...
, associated with the
"Austin High" gang (along with
Jimmy McPartland
James Dugald "Jimmy" McPartland (March 15, 1907 – March 13, 1991) was an American cornetist. He worked with Eddie Condon, Art Hodes, Gene Krupa, Benny Goodman, Jack Teagarden, and Tommy Dorsey, often leading his own bands. He was married to ...
,
Bud Freeman
Lawrence "Bud" Freeman (April 13, 1906 – March 15, 1991) was an American jazz musician, bandleader, and composer, known mainly for playing tenor saxophone, but also the clarinet.
Biography
In 1922, Freeman and some friends from high sc ...
and others).
Early life and education
He was born in
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City (abbreviated KC or KCMO) is the largest city in Missouri by population and area. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 508,090 in 2020, making it the 36th most-populous city in the United States. It is the central ...
,
but spent most of his career based in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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,
Illinois
Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...
, although gigs sometimes took him to
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, the
U.S. Midwest, and
Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
.
Teschemacher was a member of the Austin High School Gang, a group of young, white musicians from the
West Side
West Side or Westside may refer to:
Places Canada
* West Side, a neighbourhood of Windsor, Ontario
* West Side, a neighbourhood of Vancouver, British Columbia
United Kingdom
* West Side, Lewis, Outer Hebrides, Scotland
* Westside, Birmingham E ...
of Chicago, who all attended
Austin High School during the early- 1920s. They rose to prominence as pioneers of the Chicago Style in the 1920s, which was modeled on a faster version of
New Orleans jazz.
Career
Strongly influenced by cornetist
Bix Beiderbecke
Leon Bismark "Bix" Beiderbecke (March 10, 1903 – August 6, 1931) was an American jazz cornetist, pianist and composer.
Beiderbecke was one of the most influential jazz soloists of the 1920s, a cornet player noted for an inventive lyrical app ...
, Teschemacher was mainly self-taught on his instruments; early on he also doubled on
violin
The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...
and
banjo
The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...
. He started playing the
clarinet
The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The instrument has a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell, and uses a single reed to produce sound.
Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitches ...
professionally in 1925.
He began recording under his own name in 1928 and made what are believed to be his final recordings two years later, although there is now reason to believe (via sine wave recording research, aka Smith/Westbrook Method) that he appeared on unidentified recordings as late as 1932.
His first recording was with Red McKenzie and
Eddie Condon
Albert Edwin Condon (November 16, 1905 – August 4, 1973) was an American jazz banjoist, guitarist, and bandleader. A leading figure in Chicago jazz, he also played piano and sang.
Early years
Condon was born in Goodland, Indiana, the son of J ...
's Chicagoans on December 9, 1927, for
Okeh
Okeh Records () is an American record label founded by the Otto Heinemann Phonograph Corporation, a phonograph supplier established in 1916, which branched out into phonograph records in 1918. The name was spelled "OkeH" from the initials of Ott ...
("Sugar" and "China Boy").
A second session took place one week later ("Nobody’s Sweetheart" and "Liza").
The sessions included members of the Austin High School Gang: Jimmy McPartland, Bud Freeman, and Jim Lanigan, as well as Chicagoans Eddie Condon, Gene Krupa and Joe Sullivan. Red McKenzie was the session leader.
In the spring of 1928, he recorded with two other Red McKenzie and Eddie Condon groups, the Chicago Rhythm Kings and the Jungle Kings. On April 28, 1928, he made his first recordings under his own name for
Brunswick Records
Brunswick Records is an American record label founded in 1916.
History
From 1916
Records under the Brunswick label were first produced by the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company, a company based in Dubuque, Iowa which had been manufacturing produ ...
(“Jazz Me Blues” and “Singing the Blues”). The group recorded under the name Frank Teschmacher's Chicagoans. A test pressing of “Jazz Me Blues” was made which was released in 1939 on the United Hot Clubs of America (UHCA) label and later reissued by
Decca Records
Decca Records is a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis (Decca), Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934 by Lewis, Jack Kapp, American Decca's first president, and Milton Rackmil, who later became American ...
.
Teschemacher's solo work laid the groundwork for a rich sound and creative approach that is credited with influencing a young Benny Goodman and a style of which
Pee Wee Russell
Charles Ellsworth "Pee Wee" Russell (March 27, 1906 – February 15, 1969), was an American jazz musician. Early in his career he played clarinet and saxophones, but he eventually focused solely on clarinet.
With a highly individualistic and sp ...
. He also made recordings on the
saxophone
The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to pr ...
. Late in his career, he returned to playing violin with
Jan Garber
Jan Garber (born Jacob Charles Garber, November 5, 1894 – October 5, 1977) was an American violinist and jazz bandleader.
Biography
Garber was born in Indianapolis, Indiana. He had his own band by the time he was 21. He became known as "The ...
's sweet dance orchestra during the
Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
. Although he was well known in the world of jazz, he did not live to enjoy popular success in the
swing era.
Teschemacher was featured in episode two, "The Gift", in the 2001 documentary ''
Jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...
'' by
Ken Burns
Kenneth Lauren Burns (born July 29, 1953) is an American filmmaker known for his documentary film, documentary films and television series, many of which chronicle United States, American History of the United States, history and Culture of the ...
on
PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...
on the topic of the Austin High School Gang.
Personal life
Teschemacher was killed in an automobile accident on the morning of March 1, 1932, a passenger in a car driven by his performing associate cornetist
"Wild" Bill Davison; it was several days short of what would have been his 26th birthday.
References
External links
Frank Teschemacher 1906-1932at Red Hot Jazz Archive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Teschemacher, Frank
1906 births
1932 deaths
American jazz clarinetists
American jazz alto saxophonists
American male saxophonists
Road incident deaths in Illinois
Swing violinists
20th-century American saxophonists
20th-century American male musicians
American male jazz musicians
McKenzie and Condon's Chicagoans members