Some years ago, Utah Governor Leavitt made April 18th, the official “Joe McQueen Day” in Utah. Joe is infamous to jazz musicians in Utah — an absolute legend. He has played Jazz in Utah professionally since his 20’s, and is about to turn 90 next month.
Throughout that time, Joe has played with the absolute pinnacle leaders of the jazz movement: Charlie Parker, Dizzie Gillespie, Lester Young, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Chet Baker, to name a few.
Joe and I met years ago while I was playing the tenor sax in my jazz group in college, and because of that friendship had the privilege of doing some portraits of him recently.
Joe still plays regularly in the clubs of Ogden, and today being ‘Joe McQueen Day,’ he’ll be playing tonight at the Wine Cellar, located at 2550 Washington Blvd starting at 9:00 pm.
Back in the day, Ogden, Utah was one of the biggest hubs for Jazz east of the Mississippi, and Joe was right in the middle of it all. I feel honored to know him, to be able to create such emotional portraits of him, and am very excited to take my date tonight to see him play in downtown Ogden.For my readers that live in Utah, if you are free tonight and love jazz music, you should come down and see a jazz legend perform on his day, in the old jazz district that he loves.Until next time America!
–Bry
Hey, these are some great pictures of Joe. I am currently playing with Joe a lot- we’ve got a great quartet with Don Keipp on drums, Brad Wright on guitar and myself on the organ. I’m wanting to spruce up his Facebook page and get him acquainted to a broader, younger audience. Can I use these pictures on his facebook page?