Joe Mcqueen (1919-2019) *100

was an American jazz saxophonist. McQueen was born in Ponder, Texas, and raised in Ardmore, Oklahoma. His father left when he was a young boy and his mother died when he was 14 years old, after which he lived with his grandparents. In his teens he started playing saxophone in part because of his cousin, Herschel Evans, a saxophonist with Count Basie during the 1930s. He developed a relationship with Thelma, who he met on a dance floor in Ardmore, and they married on June 10, 1944.

McQueen toured with bands throughout the United States. While passing through Ogden, Utah, with his wife Thelma in 1945, a band member took the group's money. He lost it while gambling on the way to Las Vegas. McQueen and Thelma decided to remain in Ogden. He performed with jazz musicians when they stopped in Utah, such as Charlie Parker, Chet Baker, Paul Gonsalves, Lester Young, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Nat King Cole, Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, and Ray Charles. In 1962 he played in Idaho Falls, Idaho, with Hoagy Carmichael. As he approached the age of 100, he was still performing.

Post a comment / Comments guidelines