Joe McQueen, Wayne Egan and Friends
| Saxophonist, Joe McQueen (nickname: “King of O-town”)
Born: 1919 in Dallas, TX Married to: Thelma McQueen Instrument: started tenor saxophone at age 14 Residence in Utah: 60 years Joe arrived in Ogden with a jazz band in 1945. "I came to Ogden to stay for two weeks and I have been here ever since." The band dissolved when its leader gambled away the troupe's earnings en route from Las Vegas. Stranded in Ogden, McQueen re-formed the band. In 1945 Ogden was a bustling railroad hub and had become a hotspot for jazz music. Jack Kerouac mentions Ogden. Quoting Joe: "Back when I first came here, Ogden was damn near like the deep South. Restaurants were segregated and Jazz was a big hit. Ogden was booming. Big names would pass through; there was a lot of opportunity for musicians." Mr. McQueen played tuba and then saxophone in the Ardmore High School band. He has played with Nat King Cole, Charlie Parker, Chet Baker, Paul Gonsalves, Lester Young, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, and Dizzy Gillespie. He began traveling and playing music when World War II ended. He worked and played at the Porters and Waiters Club in Ogden—one of the few venues open to black Americans at the time. In 1962 Joe played with Hoagy Carmichael in Idaho Falls. He has instructed automotive technology at Weber State University. He has received numerous awards and honors, such as, in 2002 the Weber County Board of Commissioners honored him for work with inner-city youth; recently Governor Leavitt designated April 18 as Joe McQueen Day. McQueen was recently the subject of a documentary film: "King of O-Town". He was featured in a July 2005 article by The Associated Press. Pianist, Wayne Egan Born: 1944 in Philadelphia, PA Began jazz piano at age 14 Married Kathryn Smoot in 1988 (professor of communications) Weltanschauung (= world view) The soul is a vast province, and unmediated experience is hard to come by. As a rudderless young man from a good family, prone to moods of extreme interiority and living in a culture of conformism, Mr. Egan found in jazz music a manifest reprieve that increased the pace of his life and led to productive distractions, ranging from experimenting with bebop standards, learning the American songbook, and hanging out with creative and louche friends. His early nondescript piano style has evolved away from the garrulity of bebop into a mostly pensive channel, characterized by insouciant improvisations on the standards in lieu of embracing the fevered quest for novelty at any price. Mr. Egan’s musical vision is informed as much by an historical awareness as it is by an exacting sense of original composition. In college his early fondness for the likes of Horace Silver, Dave Brubeck, Wynton Kelly, and Thelonious Monk gave way to a lively interest in Bill Evans, George Shearing, Ellis Larkin, Oscar Peterson, and, since the 1990s, Fred Hersch, Keith Jarrett, and Bill Charlap. Mr. Egan’s course has taken him away from becoming a startling or explosive soloist toward developing into an interpreter of the standards and an attentive accompanist for soloists and singers. Faced with a human condition characterized largely by chaos, Mr. Egan finds in jazz a means of ordering some of the contradictions that might otherwise upset his psychic balance. Recording history * 1997: Love I’ve Found You (Nuance Records, CD 1) * 2000: Heart Wishes (Nuance Records, CD 2) * 2007: Chasing Rainbows—Always (Nuance Records, CD 3) Performance history * 1960: First steady gig: solo piano at Finlandia Restaurant (SLC) * 1961: Took a trio to Old Faithful Inn restaurant and bar * 1962-63: Pianist with the Utah State Univ. Scotsmen band * 1967-68: Weekend trio work at Twilight Lounge, SLC, UT * 1976: Sundays at a Kurfürstendamm club, Berlin Germany * 1986-88: Solo piano at Café Pacific (SLC, UT) * 1990-92: Solo piano at Hungry i Restaurant (SLC, UT) * 1995-2007: Solo piano at Nordstrom Salt Lake * 2001-2002: Lobby Lounge pianist, Grand America Hotel * 2002: Sporadic trio gigs, Rene’s Restaurant, Park City, Utah * 1981-2007: freelance pianist in SLC area Non-music Career * College: Univ. of Utah, Univ. of Berlin, and Univ. of Texas (Ph.D., German Lit.) * Artillery captain, 1968-72 (Augsburg, Germany and Viet Nam) * Corporate communications and proposal management (27 years) * Adjunct professor of humanities and communications · 1972-78—University of Texas · 1992—Westminster College of Salt Lake · 2003-07—University of Phoenix, Utah Campus | |
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