[Dixielandjazz] Peanuts Hucko

[G. William Oakley]

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Here is today's Rocky Mountain News obit on Peanuts Hucko.

 Peanuts Hucko
By Tristana Santos, Rocky Mountain News
June 25, 2003

In an era of great jazz players, clarinetist and saxophonist Peanuts Hucko
stood out not only for his name, but for his great ability.

Mr. Hucko, 85, former sideman with the Glenn Miller and Louis Armstrong
bands who had a loyal following in Denver, died of pneumonia Thursday in
Forth Worth, Texas.

Mr. Hucko and his wife, Louise Tobin Hucko, a former vocalist with the Benny
Goodman band, opened the Navarre, a popular jazz club and restaurant in
Denver in 1967.

Michael Andrew Hucko was born April, 7, 1918, in Syracuse, N.Y. He picked up
the nickname Peanuts because of his size when he started playing saxophone
at age 11. He used to sneak into the high school auditorium to listen to the
band rehearse. One day a teacher stopped him and said he couldn't come again
unless he brought an instrument. So the next day he did, and that was the
beginning of a bright career, he told the Rocky Mountain News in 1967.

"I was scared to death. But I started playing sax with the band," he said.

By the time he was 19, he was in New York City playing with the big bands of
that time. In 1942, he went into the infantry, but Glenn Miller wanted him
in his Air Force band and got congressional approval to transfer him. It was
Miller who suggested that Mr. Hucko change from tenor saxophone to first
clarinet.

"He used to say Glenn Miller changed his life," said Louise -Hucko in a
telephone interview from her home in Denton, Texas.

Mr. Hucko continued to play with the band after Miller's disappearance
during World War II, then joined Louis Armstrong's All Stars and worked as a
studio musician for CBS and ABC.

Shortly before moving to Denver in June 1967, Mr. Hucko called a female
singer and offered her a job performing with him six nights a week in the
Navarre at 1727 Tremont Place. The singer was Louise Tobin, and by opening
night, they were already married.

The couple became the managers of what she recalls as "a gorgeous place,
probably the most elegant jazz club in the country. It was one of the
happiest times of our lives."

In 1969, the Huckos decided to sell their share of the restaurant, which
closed six weeks later. The Navarre is still remembered by jazz fans as "a
high point in Denver's music history," says Sunny Sutton, wife of the late
Ralph Sutton, a legendary jazz piano player, who shared stages with Mr.
Hucko for 50 years.

Both musicians played with a group in the 1960s at the storied jazz parties
hosted by local jazz enthusiast Dick Gibson in the Trocadero Ball Room at
Elitch's Gardens.

The group would later be called the 10 Greats of Jazz and the World's
Greatest Jazz Band.

In the 1970s, Mr. Hucko became a member of The Lawrence Welk Show. After
many years of concerts around the world, he settled in Denton, his wife's
hometown.

"I think he was a musical genius," said Louise Hucko, "but what I'll
remember most is that he was a man of absolute integrity, which is hard to
find in show business."

On Oct. 10, the annual Sutton's Rocky Mountain Jazz Party at Marriott City
Center will be dedicated to the memory of Peanuts Hucko.

In addition to Louise Hucko, he is survived by stepsons Harry James, of
Dallas, and Tim James, of Nacogdoches, Texas; a sister, Irene Martin, of
Syracuse; eight grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren.

Contributions may be made to Volunteers of America, 1424 Hemphill, Fort
Worth, TX 76104.