In 1922, five white high-school teens started a jazz revolution. All attended Austin High School on Chicago's West Side and were mad about jazz—the jazz that came up to the city from New Orleans in 1920. That's when Prohibition led to bootlegging, organized crime, and speakeasies and clubs run by gangsters who needed exciting music to keep patrons drinking. The Austin High Gang, as they became known, took New Orleans jazz and gave it a peppy bounce, making it ideal for dances like the Charleston.
The Austin High Gang consisted of Jim Lanigan on piano, Jimmy McPartland on cornet, his older brother Dick McPartland on banjo and guitar, Frank Teschemacher on alto saxophone, and Bud Freeman on C-melody tenor saxophone. They began playing dance halls and events, and caught the ear of others who wanted to play the new sound: Guitarist Eddie Condon, drummers Gene Krupa and Dave Tough, clarinetist Frank Teschmacher and Pee Wee Russell, pianist Joe Sullivan and others.
Also attracted to the new sound were Bix Beiderbecke, Red Nichols, Benny Goodman, Pee Wee Russell, Miff Mole, Jack Teagarden (pictured) and Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey. All favored the hot jazz sound rather than the sweet pop found in hotel ballrooms. By the late 1920s, many of the Austin High Gang had move to New York and were recorded playing what became known as Chicago hot jazz.
Back in 1992, producer George Avakian decided to revisit the music of his first album—and jazz's first album—Decca Presents an Album of Chicago Jazz. It consisted of six 78s and was released in 1939. Three bands were featured on the 78s: one led by Eddie Condon, one led by Jimmy McPartland, and one led by George Wettling. Each contributed four songs to the album.
The 1992 record session collectively featured Dick Hyman (piano), Peter Ecklund and Dick Sudhalter (cornet), Jon-Erik Kellso (trumpet), Dan Barrett (trombone), Kenny Davern and Dan Levinson (clarinet), Ken Peplowski (tenor saxophone), Vince Giordano (bass saxophone), Howard Alden and Marty Grosz (banjo), Bob Haggart and Milt Hinton (bass) and Tony DeNicola and Arnie Kinsella (drums).
After the 1992 recording session, Avakian's partner in the venture, Seymour Solomon, backed out, likely due to the prohibitive costs. Avakian was forced to pay for the album's recording out of pocket. Then he shopped it around to record labels. There weren't any takers who were willing to make Avakian whole. So he shelved it.
In 2017, Dan Levinson visited an ailing Avakian at The Esplenade, an assisted-living facility on West End Avenue. He convinced Avakian to let him put out the album but doubted he'd be able to recoup Avakian's original expenses. Avakian said he didn't care about the money, only the music and gave Levinson his blessing. Avakian wold die in November of that year.
In July 2020, Dick Hyman (above) called Levinson and said he had been listening to Avakian's tape and raved about how good the music sounded. Freshly inspired, Levinson called Bryan Wright of Rivermont Records, who agreed to put it out. Now, 100 years after the Austin High Gang formed, 83 years after Avakian recorded his Chicago Jazz album for Decca, and 30 years after the Chicago jazz sound was revived by three different ensembles for a record that never was, the album will finally be released on July 15.
The music on the album—George Avakian Presents: One Step to Chicago, the Legacy of Frank Teschemacher and the Austin High Gang—is fantastic. Deliciously frantic and crazy contrapuntal, you can hear the joy of the era's youth, women's new-found voting rights, body-hugging fashion, faster dancing and emerging sexual freedom. Also baked in is the sunny vision that emerged with the end of World War I and an economy that was beginning to surge.
The songs on the original 1939 Decca album were Nobody's Sweetheart, Friar's Point Shuffle, There'll Be Some Changes Made, Someday Sweetheart, China Boy, Jazz Me Blues, Sugar, The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise, Bugle Call Rag, I Wish I could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate, the Darktown Strutters' Ball and I've Found a New Baby.
The tracks on the new release recorded in 1992 are One Step to Heaven, Sugar (That Sugar Baby o' Mine), I've Found a New Baby, China Boy, Liza, Shim-Me-Sha-Wabble, The Darktown Strutters' Ball, Wabash Blues, Nobody's Sweetheart, The Jazz Me Blues, Baby Won't You Please Come Home, Wolverine Blues, Indiana and Farewell Blues.
As you can see, there's only a four-song overlap. I'm assuming this was to avoid mimicking the original and to give the three ensembles some room to spread its Austin High wings. The music reflects an era of hedonism, excess and happiness. Remember those days? We'll have to wait a bit longer for that feeling to return.
Here's the original Decca Chicago Jazz version of the song by Eddie Condon and his Chicagoans...
And here's a segment on Bud Freeman and the rise of white Chicago jazz...
The Austin High Gang consisted of Jim Lanigan on piano, Jimmy McPartland on cornet, his older brother Dick McPartland on banjo and guitar, Frank Teschemacher on alto saxophone, and Bud Freeman on C-melody tenor saxophone. They began playing dance halls and events, and caught the ear of others who wanted to play the new sound: Guitarist Eddie Condon, drummers Gene Krupa and Dave Tough, clarinetist Frank Teschmacher and Pee Wee Russell, pianist Joe Sullivan and others.
Also attracted to the new sound were Bix Beiderbecke, Red Nichols, Benny Goodman, Pee Wee Russell, Miff Mole, Jack Teagarden (pictured) and Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey. All favored the hot jazz sound rather than the sweet pop found in hotel ballrooms. By the late 1920s, many of the Austin High Gang had move to New York and were recorded playing what became known as Chicago hot jazz.
Back in 1992, producer George Avakian decided to revisit the music of his first album—and jazz's first album—Decca Presents an Album of Chicago Jazz. It consisted of six 78s and was released in 1939. Three bands were featured on the 78s: one led by Eddie Condon, one led by Jimmy McPartland, and one led by George Wettling. Each contributed four songs to the album.
The 1992 record session collectively featured Dick Hyman (piano), Peter Ecklund and Dick Sudhalter (cornet), Jon-Erik Kellso (trumpet), Dan Barrett (trombone), Kenny Davern and Dan Levinson (clarinet), Ken Peplowski (tenor saxophone), Vince Giordano (bass saxophone), Howard Alden and Marty Grosz (banjo), Bob Haggart and Milt Hinton (bass) and Tony DeNicola and Arnie Kinsella (drums).
After the 1992 recording session, Avakian's partner in the venture, Seymour Solomon, backed out, likely due to the prohibitive costs. Avakian was forced to pay for the album's recording out of pocket. Then he shopped it around to record labels. There weren't any takers who were willing to make Avakian whole. So he shelved it.
In 2017, Dan Levinson visited an ailing Avakian at The Esplenade, an assisted-living facility on West End Avenue. He convinced Avakian to let him put out the album but doubted he'd be able to recoup Avakian's original expenses. Avakian said he didn't care about the money, only the music and gave Levinson his blessing. Avakian wold die in November of that year.
In July 2020, Dick Hyman (above) called Levinson and said he had been listening to Avakian's tape and raved about how good the music sounded. Freshly inspired, Levinson called Bryan Wright of Rivermont Records, who agreed to put it out. Now, 100 years after the Austin High Gang formed, 83 years after Avakian recorded his Chicago Jazz album for Decca, and 30 years after the Chicago jazz sound was revived by three different ensembles for a record that never was, the album will finally be released on July 15.
The music on the album—George Avakian Presents: One Step to Chicago, the Legacy of Frank Teschemacher and the Austin High Gang—is fantastic. Deliciously frantic and crazy contrapuntal, you can hear the joy of the era's youth, women's new-found voting rights, body-hugging fashion, faster dancing and emerging sexual freedom. Also baked in is the sunny vision that emerged with the end of World War I and an economy that was beginning to surge.
The songs on the original 1939 Decca album were Nobody's Sweetheart, Friar's Point Shuffle, There'll Be Some Changes Made, Someday Sweetheart, China Boy, Jazz Me Blues, Sugar, The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise, Bugle Call Rag, I Wish I could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate, the Darktown Strutters' Ball and I've Found a New Baby.
The tracks on the new release recorded in 1992 are One Step to Heaven, Sugar (That Sugar Baby o' Mine), I've Found a New Baby, China Boy, Liza, Shim-Me-Sha-Wabble, The Darktown Strutters' Ball, Wabash Blues, Nobody's Sweetheart, The Jazz Me Blues, Baby Won't You Please Come Home, Wolverine Blues, Indiana and Farewell Blues.
As you can see, there's only a four-song overlap. I'm assuming this was to avoid mimicking the original and to give the three ensembles some room to spread its Austin High wings. The music reflects an era of hedonism, excess and happiness. Remember those days? We'll have to wait a bit longer for that feeling to return.
Here's the original Decca Chicago Jazz version of the song by Eddie Condon and his Chicagoans...
And here's a segment on Bud Freeman and the rise of white Chicago jazz...
This story appears courtesy of JazzWax by Marc Myers.
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