Weldon L. Teagarden

(1905-1964) lived in Chappell, Deuel County. Trombonist, singer, bandleader, regarded as a model for playing jazz trombone style, and a gifted jazz singer, he was among the first white musicians to perform in the blues tradition; played with bands headed by Paul Whiteman, Louis Armstrong, and others, and formed his own band during the big swing band era from 1938 to 1946, and smaller groups in the 1950s; appeared in several movies and achieved many recordings; performed with his mother, a piano player, in Chappell from 1918 to 1920. Consult New York Times obituary, January 16, 1964, p. 25 and The New Yorker, April 2, 1984, pp. 47-50, 53-54 and Contemporary Musicians, Vol 10 (Gale, 1994) 246-250 and American National Biography, Vol 21 (1999) 416-417 and New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, 2nd ed, Vol 3 (2002) 728-730.

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