Chicago: Austin High Gang

The following tape recorded program is a presentation of the National Association of

educational broadcasters.

A series of programs on the roots of united in this program we

trace the activities of the Chicago school.

The jazz music of Chicago focuses on the year one thousand twenty two.

In that year the New Orleans Rhythm Kings were at Friar's in. In that year. Louis

Armstrong joined King Oliver in 1920 to Bix Beiderbecke was

playing around Chicago and the Wolverines were in the offing. In

1922. A group of neophyte musicians most of whom attended

the Austin High School were working over their music and listening to records.

And they were soon to form a band.

The Austin High School was out in Chicago's West and it was a buff brick

building so much like any number of others that it is difficult to describe

in this building. A number of boys met who might have gone on to college except for their

interest in music. They all played the violin except one. He wanted to

play drums but he ended up playing the saxophone. There were five boys

all interested in music and they eventually became the nucleus of a

driving force in jazz history.

They were the Austin High gang drawn together by a common ambition. They

went as a group to theatres parties and restaurants. Coming from comfortable middle

class homes they could in the beginning pursue their musical ambitions as a hobby. A circumstance

that gave them much more freedom of choice than would have been the case with a different background. At

that time the Al Jolson orchestra heard in a local theater was their inspiration.

Though it was not to last long. It did however give them the incentive they needed and

they improved rapidly. Soon they were good enough to play at the afternoon high school dances that were becoming

popular in Chicago. These dances would usually from three until about

5:30 had the endorsement of The Parent Teachers Association.

No doubt on the theory that they were a healthy social outlet for youthful energies across

the street from Austin High was an ice cream parlor known as the spoon and straw.

And on Nickelodeon the Austin High boys first heard the music of the New Orleans

Rhythm Kings in an old blues called Tin Roof. And that was the

direction signal for these boys. Later they heard recordings of

Bix and the Wolverines. Before long they were buying every record they could.

Wearing them out going to Friar's in the set and listen and occasionally play a

chorus and hearing all they could of the horn of. By today

they gave up the violins and formed a band and we had Jimmy McPartland on

Korn at his brother Dick on banjo and guitar. Jim Lanigan on piano and

bass Bud Freeman and C Melody sax and Frank on

clarinet. The two influences of their musical life were the New

Orleans Rhythm Kings at friars inn and Becks and his Wolverines.

They named their first orchestra the blue friars in honor of the one

and eventually they replaced every member of the wolverine orchestra playing honoring

the second.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Wow. Wow.

And here are the woods of Charles Edward Smith in his book Jasmine

in the Austin gang the oldest boys Jim Lanigan and Dick McPartland were

best grounded in theory although Jim was jazz crazy with the rest of them.

He wasn't sure that he always wanted to play in jazz bands. He'd watched and listened to the

foundation work of a contra bass in a symphony orchestra. And this had become the measure of

his ambition. Jimmy McPartland on the other hand wouldn't trade his jazz cornet for the

best symphony job and some athletic That was a sturdy quality and his

ambition that showed in his personality and Tesh. Well you couldn't to this day

get an accurate word picture of him. He was of medium height. Blonde and outwardly

quiet he had a full mouth a long upper lip slightly snub

nose high rounded forehead and brooding eyes that were often hidden by glasses.

He was patient and impatient by turns. Some said this was because

of his extreme sensitivity. Others insisted there were those two sides to his nature.

Whatever it was Tash remained to the end. The white haired boy of the Austin

High School gang the one they listened to and the one they followed.

They played at high school dances at the homes of fellow students. They played for

supper often nothing at all. They sponsored their own dances in pop of

aliens charging fifty cents admission. They met Dave tough and the young

Benny Goodman and pianist Joe Sullivan at places like Lewis Institute

and Floyd O'Brien was found at the University of Chicago. Eventually the

Chicago school of jazz met any of these names. Plus the music

of clarinetists Mez Mesereau and Fred Livingston pianist Jess

Stacey trombonist Jack T gotten Eddie Condon and Gene Krupa.

These men were not all from Chicago but musically they either contributed

to 0 or influenced by the music of the pivotal group of Chicago jazz.

The Austin High boys. Max Kaminski came from Boston.

Russell from St. Louis. Danny Polo was playing around the Windy City while the

Austin High boys were presumably still studying violin. The same is

true of middle register virtuoso Muggsy Spanier. Just Stacey came up

the river from Cape Girardeau Missouri Jack Teagarden from

Texas the impresario red McKenzie came from St. Louis where he began as a

jockey and a lot of day impresario Eddie Condon came from Indiana

and jobbed around Iowa with Peavey's jazz band it's when he known came

from New Orleans a con artist would want to add to these. The Wolverines with

pics from Davenport Iowa and you've got almost all of Chicago Jazz and

most of them are still playing. They didn't come from Chicago but their music

did.

Another way of telling this story would have been to tell the story of Frank Tosh my first

Charles Edward Smith said. Cash remains and the white head

boy of the Austin High School game and the end came for Tash as it

had for Becks in the early 1930s when he was killed in an automobile accident.

And with the death of cash or coincident with it Chicago jazz

changed or went underground or disappeared except on records.

It was a strange jazz musician. There are almost as many legends

concerning him as there are about. There is not however a

unanimity concerning his current at play but we'll let you judge that

for yourself. Here is his solo on blue.

And the Austin High boy who filled the big shoes of Bix in the rain orchestra in

New York was Jimmy McPartland Jimmy played a cornet and he

played very much like big though his ideas were not nearly as graceful.

His tone was big and his movement too. And here he is playing with

Tash Freeman Sullivan Condon and Krupa in the year one thousand twenty seven.

And of course we can't forget Muggsy Spanier. He had been playing cornet around

Chicago all through the 20s and he played with and the rest of the Chicago.

But his big time was to come 10 years later when he was to revive Chicago

Jazz and stylized Dixie. Another of the Chicago school

who who was befriended of cash was the Des Moines clarinetist rod class

and 10 years later his name was to be linked with Mugsy but Mugsy

played in the 20s. And here is one of the unusual stories about Chicago

jazz.

The rhythmic breadth of Chicago musicians can be heard in the first record made together by

Mugsy and Tesh. Charles Pierce was a South Side but you're in

Chicago who love jazz and implemented that love by using the money he made from meat

to support a first rate jazz band which played weekends and made records.

In October of 1987 Pierce took Mugsy and Tash and seven other

musicians including himself on saxophone into the Paramount Studios in

Chicago to make their memorable bullfrog blues. China boy and

nobody sweetheart. On all these sides there is a drive

the rhythmic integration stringing solos together. And here are the words of

Frederick Ramsey Jr. the Charles Pierce records are

touchstones to Chicago Jazz development while at times hesitant and fumbling.

All musicians present show themselves grasping something different in the way of

jazz a new beat and different concept of solo and ensemble work.

Two months later Eddie Condon And Redd McKenzie promoted the Chicagoans into

another recording studio and they made a recording of nobody sweetheart

which is distinguished by the work of tosh Micah in a new department of music.

Here is the way Barry Ulanov speaks of it.

They played nobody's sweetheart again as well as sugared China boy and

they played with the abaya and inevitable that such a breeze union of musicians

standing on soapboxes they poured all they had learned into the recording microphone

and it was much. The beat was almost an even four for the ensemble with

both fluid and clean Gene Krupa. Then just moving into the select circle was a

native Chicago one who showed at 18 as later a considerable technical

skill but a heaviness as well. Frank Tessmacher who scored several of the

ensemble passages showed especially in the brilliant Middle Passage of nobody sweetheart that

he was moving along in his jazz ideas and had gone past the point at which only

unscarred improvisation was acceptable.

And here is nobody sweetheart.

OK.

By nineteen twenty nine. Two events had occurred which brought about the end of the

jazz age and Chicago Jazz and for a time practically all jazz as

far as the listening public was concerned. The musicians still jammed away in

private but the money what little of it that there had ever been was now gone

completely. Here is how Barry Ulanov describes the situation.

When the depression came in 1929 the great years of Chicago Jazz were

over although Tesh continued to play until his death in 1932 with the

coming of radio the name Band Era inaugurated during the peak recording

years was fully underway. Popular tunes novelty act and

the bands associated with them had caught the public's fancy and there wasn't much of an

audience for the little groups that played the big jazz. Tash spent most of his last

three years of his life playing with bands like those of Jan Garber and Ted Lewis

and Charles Edward Smith comments on those last three years of Tasha's life

Tesh is often pictured as having been a musical hermit at this period in his life. Of

course that was not so. He played jam sessions with such friends as known and Johnny

Dodds. He was married too and happily so. But music was always an

important part of his life. He saw a lot of Rod class with whom we had become friendly in Des

Moines and he jammed with younger musicians such as Joe Marsala at home.

He played Holst the planets much as Bex played Deb you see his own

records. He played repeatedly always listening closely here both

his tenacity and his humility were apparent. A chorus might sound a little off

or the tone not quite right as the conviction grew that something was wrong. Tash would

lay the record aside take it up again play it through once or twice more

and then smash it deliberately. Because Tash had natural talent

some of his friends were inclined to over estimate it and assume that he came by the style as

you and I breathe or walk or talk. Seeing him with the clarinet held carelessly to

his lips notes tumbling out spreading in broad crescendos that cut through the noise

of a crowded hall.

It did look spontaneous but he practiced continually and listened critically to his

own playing.

That was Tash and that was the spirit of the Chicago style

that it was a melodic and rhythmic style having its own measurable qualities may be

determined by listening to records that had a perceptible influence

on subsequent hot music will hardly be questioned.

The Chicagoans all joined the big bands and dissipated in anonymity

for the yearly years of the 30s and Tash disappeared forever.

The year was 1932. Tash had a deathly fear of automobiles.

He hated to write it. And one night as he and Wild Bill Davidson were driving to a

job a truck hit their car and Tosh was thrown out and killed. His

life ended as his music had three years earlier by a force

uncontrollable by himself.

Congo style jazz grew out of the negro and like music.

It grew out of the musicianship of a dozen Chicago youngsters at the feet of Jimi knew.

Listen to records of the New Orleans rhythm King and pinch hit in the early

morning hours. It grew out of music on the river boats

by Bix Beiderbecke. It grew on the foundations laid by King all of Louis

Armstrong and all that went before. It was the same and it was

different. It was the old way and it was something new. And then I

suppose.

The roots of jazz in the United States. The next program will tell of the

piano jazz music the roots of jazz is written and produced by

Norman Cleary. Technician. And

this is Norman speak.

This is the ABC radio network.