Frank Teschemacher
American musician (1906–1932)
Frank Teschemacher (March 13, 1906 – March 1, 1932) was an American jazz clarinetist and alto-saxophonist, associated with the "Austin High" gang (along with Jimmy McPartland, Bud Freeman and others).
Early life and education
He was born in Kansas City, Missouri, but spent most of his career based in Chicago, Illinois, although gigs sometimes took him to New York City, the U.S. Midwest, and Florida.
Teschemacher was a member of the Austin High School Gang, a group of young, white musicians from the West Side 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, Teschemacher was mainly self-taught on his instruments; early on he also doubled on violin and banjo. He started playing the clarinet 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, a.k.a. Smith/Westbrook Method) that he appeared on unidentified recordings as late as 1932.
His first recording was with Red McKenzie and Eddie Condon's Chicagoans on December 9, 1927, for Okeh ("Sugar" and "China Boy"). A second session took place one week later ("Nobody's Sweetheart" and "Liza").
The public source identifies “Frank Teschemacher” as american musician (1906–1932). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Frank, Teschemacher and American.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1444305. VIAF identifies the subject as 59275503. The Library of Congress control number is n82091491. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1906, 1932, 1925 and 1928.
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This entry incorporates text from “Frank Teschemacher” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.