[Dixielandjazz] RIP:Peanuts Hucko-Veteran Clarinettest

[Kaye Wade]

> PEANUTS HUCKO
> The explanation was disappointingly prosaic. "When I was a
kid I was
always
> eating peanuts." In some ways Hucko was the perfect example
of a Swing Era
> sideman. He had done everything from playing in the big
bands - he was
Glenn
> Miller's main soloist - to touring the world as a member of
Louis
Armstrong'
> s All Star sextet. He was a journeyman of the highest
quality, always at
the
> arm of the big star.
>   Although he became one of the best swing clarinettists,
Hucko's
instrument
> for the first few years of his career was the tenor
saxophone. Later his
> clarinet style was soundly based on that of Benny Goodman,
observed at
close
> had when Hucko played tenor sax in Goodman's band in the
middle Forties.
>    "I played for five trombonists, too. Jack Jenney, Will
Bradley, Glenn
> Miller, Jack Teagarden and Tommy Dorsey."
>    Hucko was the epitome of a hot player and from 1950
onwards was
regarded
> as one of the best Dixieland clarinettists. But no matter
how aroused he
> sounded in his solos, he was always in command and taking
care of
business.
> Trombonist Roy Williams was part of a band formed to tour
Britain with the
> clarinettist. One night in a club the music got better and
better until at
> the end, the usually sophisticated Williams was carried away
with the
> excitement of it all. As the last number finished, he looked
across in
> admiration at Hucko. "That's marvellous," said the
clarinettist looking at
> his watch. "They wanted us to finish at eleven fifteen and
it's eleven
> fifteen dead on the button." He began to put his clarinet
away.
>    In 1939 trombonist Will Bradley and drummer Ray McKinley
had formed a
> band under Bradley's leadership. They tapped the popular
boogie woogie
vein
> and had hits with numbers like "Beat me Daddy, Eight To The
Bar" and
"Celery
> Stalks At Midnight". Hucko left Jack Jenney's band to join
Bradley on
tenor
> sax at the beginning of the band's success and was fired and
re-hired
three
> times by Ray McKinley because he refused to play clarinet in
the band.
Hucko
> stayed for a year and then moved on through the bands of Joe
Marsala,
> Charlie Spivak and Bob Chester before being called into the
US Army.
> Although he barely knew Benny Goodman, Goodman pulled
strings and had
Hucko
> enlisted as a musician.
>    Hucko kicked his heels in Army backwaters for some
months. "They
trained
> us as infantrymen as well, and that's when I decided to make
clarinet my
> main instrument. They made us march through sand carrying
our instruments,
> and it was much easier with a clarinet than with the tenor."
>    Ray McKinley had become one of the organisers of Glenn
Miller's Army
Band
> and he arranged to have Hucko transferred to it. He was
surprised to find
> Hucko playing clarinet and paradoxically Hucko played tenor
at first in
the
> band. It was only when Miller overheard his clarinet playing
by accident
> that Miller moved him to be the band's leading soloist on
that instrument.
>    Miller was a strict disciplinarian who treated his
musicians as the
> soldiers that they were. Most of them didn't like him, but
Hucko, a mere
> PFC, got on extremely well with him and, had Miller
survived, would
> undoubtedly gone on to work for him after the Army days.
>    By the time the Miller Army band came to Europe, McKinley
had formed a
> successful small group within the band with Hucko and
pianist Mel Powell.
> When they reached Paris the small group recorded with Django
Reinhardt.
>     By the time the band reached Britain London was being
assailed by V1
> pilotless bombs and the Army musicians didn't like the idea
of staying in
> the city. Because of this arrangements were made for them to
stay outside
in
> Bedfordshire. On their first night in the county an
off-course V1 exploded
> hundreds of yards from where the band was staying.
>    Demobilised, Hucko joined the Benny Goodman band on tenor
sax and then
> rejoined Ray McKinley for a year. By 1946 he was playing
clarinet in Eddie
> Condon's New York club and the move led him away from the
tenor again and
he
> became a Dixieland clarinetist. He played this role in the
classic New
York
> Town Hall concert given by Louis Armstrong in 1947.
>    His instrumental skills were so good that he had little
trouble getting
a
> job in the New York studios during the early Fifties. The
studio
orchestras
> were packed with great jazz musicians and Hucko worked and
recorded on
both
> his instruments with the likes of Billy Butterfield, Lou
McGarity and
Boomie
> Richman. He worked at Condon's in the evenings and made a
name for himself
> with Condon's sophisticated audience.
>    When a band was put together to be led by Jack Teagarden
on a European
> tour, Hucko was the natural choice on clarinet. His return
to Britain with
> the band in 1957 was as a star, and he later returned many
times to play
> with British musicians in that role. In 1958 he replaced
Edmond Hall in
> Louis Armstrong's All Stars and toured the world with the
trumpeter.
>    In the early Sixties Hucko married Louise Tobin, a fine
singer who had
> been trumpeter Harry James's first wife. Their happy
marriage was to last
> till Hucko's death. James was delighted, because it meant
that he no
longer
> had to pay the not inconsiderable alimony that had been
involved. Hucko
> became a popular stepfather to James's children. "I don't
want to be
unkind
> to my Dad," said Harry Jeffrey James at Hucko's 80th
birthday party, I
just
> didn't know him very well. But Peanuts, you're the best
father I ever
had."
>   Hucko returned to Condon's to lead the house band from
1964 until 1966
and
> during the next decade led the Glenn Miller "ghost" band
from time to
time.
> He joined The World's Greatest Jazz Band when it was formed
in 1968 but
left
> it to settle in Denver where he was toe co-owner of the
Navarre
restaurant.
> He also led the band there. He reached a huge audience with
regular
> appearances on television with the very commercial Lawrence
Welk Orchestra
> during the early Seventies.
>   From then onwards he appeared across the world often
accompanied by
Louise
> Tobin who sang with him in many Benny Goodman tributes.
Indeed Hucko's
> regular library consisted mainly of Goodman favourites. In
1981 he formed
> his Pied Piper Quintet which featured the pianist Ralph
Sutton. He made
many
> recordings in Europe and Japan and helped to discover and
draw attention
to
> several future jazz stars.
>   He and Louise Tobin settled in North Texas. They were
forced to move a
few
> years ago when their house was destroyed in a fire, but they
bought
another
> one and stayed in the area.
> Steve Voce
> Michael Andrew "Peanuts" Hucko, clarinet player: born
Syracuse, New York 7
> April 1918; married; died Denton, Texas 19 June 2003.
>
> -From: "Michael Fitzgerald" <fitzgera at eclipse.net>
> To: <jazz-westcoast at merchant.book.uci.edu>

--
Kaye Wade
Stuntwoman-Actress, Reflexologist
Vocalist & Bandleader -Kaye Wade's Riverboat Ramblers
& The Tinsel Town Ten Minus 3
PO Box 1068 Studio City  CA. 91614-1068
http://www.KayeWade.com