Shades of Night opened something of a new chapter in Jack Teagarden’s career, involving him in a concept album whose existence and recording owed itself to the new technology of stereo. Capitol Records had done well with Coast Concert, the album that brought Bobby Hackett and Teagarden together, and also with the rollicking This Is Teagarden and the gospel-flavored Swing Low Sweet Spiritual, showcasing the Dixieland trombone legend on his own — in late 1957, someone at the label seems to have gotten the idea that if Teagarden and Hackett could sell well, and if Hackett was spending lots of his time doing instrumental mood music in tandem with Jackie Gleason and racking up huge sales, it was worth seeing if Teagarden’s instrument could appeal to the same audience. And so, in February 1958, in a couple of sessions in New York and follow-ups in Los Angeles, Teagarden delivered Shades of Night, a gorgeous record that was about as far from the Dixieland sound that Teagarden was known for as it was possible to be — much as he was far away from the rest of the band. The exquisite Sid Feller arrangements, featuring seven reedmen and Hank Jones’ and Al Casamenti’s guitars at their most elegant, were cut in New York and “Big Tea” added his solos on the West Coast, even delivering distinctly different ones to the mono and stereo versions of “Diane” (a piece he’d been doing for three decades), and also to “Autumn Leaves” and “Junk Man” — working in isolation, and in a subdued but intense manner, Teagarden delivers a string of exquisite performances, showing his lyrical side; his extended blues solos on the two different versions of “Junk Man” are worth the tracking down on either version of this album. The results might not be the most exciting of his career, but they include some of the best trombone playing that you’re ever likely to hear, and make this album essential listening for fans of the instrument as well as the musician. Additionally, it’s all recorded so well and so “close” that, in its own way, this release could also appeal to fans of bachelor pad and space-age pop, as a mature alternative to the brighter, faster sounds on those albums. The sessions also marked a rare moment in which Teagarden didn’t sing anywhere on the resulting sides, but his playing is so good that it’s impossible to complain. [Note: Capitol has never reissued Shades of Night on CD, but has licensed it to Mosaic Records for use on their 1996 Complete Capitol Fifties Jack Teagarden Sessions box, and have included all of the mono cuts that offer different solos]. – Bruce Eder
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